


The Demon's Protector

by Write_No_Evil



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin, Batman and Robin (Comics), Batman vs. Robin (2015), Red Hood: Lost Days, Robin: Son of Batman (Comics), Son of Batman (2014), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassin!Jason Todd, Gen, Jason and Damian bonding, Resurrected Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-05-31 17:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6480367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_No_Evil/pseuds/Write_No_Evil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jason never left the League of Assassins to get his revenge on Bruce? Jason gets captured before he can leave, just minutes after the Lazarus Pit restored him fully and is dragged in front of Ra's al Ghul. Instead of killing him, Ra's appoints him as his grandson, and heir's, Dark Angel. Jason is now the protector of Damian. He travels around the world, learning skills to aid him in defending Damian whilst also assessing their skills in teaching, so Damian can have the best of teachers. He becomes the Red Hood, a ruthless killer with a 100% success rate and watches as Damian grows up, from an assassin to a Robin but never revealing himself to the boy he was sworn to protect; Damian never thinking that Jayjay, his friend from childhood, Jason Todd, his literature tutor and the Red Hood, one of the League's greatest assassins, were both the same person as well as his Dark Angel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jason Todd died when his mother had given him over to the Joker. Robin died when the bomb had gone off, obliterating everything in and around it. Batman was too late and his son and sidekick was dead.

But then he wasn't.

Suddenly Jason was awake, throat drier than ever before as if he had run a marathon in the desert. Instinctively he shot his hands out, his fingers bending back painfully when they hit the hard wood of his coffin lid. It took a bit of exploring to realise where he was and when he knew what he was in his hysteria came back worse, his breath quickening as panic settled over him like a blanket.

"BATMAN!! BATMAN! HELP ME! BATMAN!!" Jason yelled, banging the lid above him. He stilled when he suddenly thought of something. How much oxygen did he have? He forced himself to be calm, believing a coffin had oxygen for an hour or two. Once the scared boy got his breath back, a hard accomplishment, he took the time to remember everything Bruce had told him about being buried. With panic, he realised he couldn't recall much, too confident in thinking he would never need the skills.

Jason unbuckled his belt and set it aside, planning to use it to make a hole in the lid above him. Before he did though, he pulled his shirt off and covered his face to keep the soil off it. He hoped it wasn't raining, rainwater made the soil heavier. Maybe heavy enough to damage the coffin. Jason quickly dismissed the thought, only cheap coffins would be destroyed by the weight of the soil above. Bruce was a billionaire, he'd have paid for the most expensive coffin for the son he loved so dearly. Although, he didn't seem to be coming to Jason's desperate need. Jason shoved that thought as far down as possibe and concentrated on getting out.

The teen jammed his knees into the lid to see if he could break the lid, hoping to make a hole or break the hinges keeping the lid shut. When it didn't budge, Jason got his belt buckle and began scraping the surface above him, the wood wearing away. Dirt fell into his face, his shirt the only thing stopping it going into his mouth. Once he made a hole, he shoved the mud to his feet. The trapped male worked to sit up, shovelling the dirt to the side, beneath and behind him.

When the male finally crawled out of his grave over an hour later his fingernails were torn off and there was blood all over his fingers. The recently resurrected teen sat next to the grave he had just crawled out, panting hard, his body shaking from fatigue. Jason took deep, heaving breaths, the cold rainwater cleaning his face. He let it trickle into his mouth, his need to quench his thirst overpowering everything else. His right eye was swollen shut and the vision in his left eye was getting progressively worse.

Somehow, with sheer will, he pulled himself up and staggered out of the graveyard. Every part of his body protested at the action, from his broken bones to his empty stomach. He ignored everything, stumbling onwards, one foot in front of the other. He didn't know it but he walked twelve and a half miles before coming into contact with civilians. And by that, he was run over by two lost people. The car headlights dimly reminded him of the explosion in the warehouse. It was his last thought for quite a while.

  
He spent a year on the streets, living much like he had when he been a child. He survived though, and became infamous among the other street rats he lived with. They saw his talents, from stealing to beating people up and flocked to him to stay safe from gangs and to be fed. He didn't, _couldn't_ , speak to them but they didn't care, they didn't judge him yet kept their distance from him out of respect.

What little stability he had built was destroyed when a guy began to beat him up, saying Jason was in his spot. Jason fought him and won, all his training from before he died kicking in to protect him whilst his eyes stayed blank and unfocused. As he fought, another street rat saw him, watched him move like Batman's Robin. Before the fight was even over, she was rushing to a payphone to call a person she thought would want to know about what she had just seen. They called another person, who called another person, who called another person and within a week, Talia was standing in front of Jason, sweeping him off the streets just like Bruce had once done before.

* * *

"Look at him father, he has grown strong," Talia told her father, pointing at the one-way window that showed Jason fighting a group of ninjas.

"He has grown strong because we have fed him," Ra's retorted. "It has been a year and we are still no closer to finding out how he came back. Nor has his mental state improved. Talia, enough is enough, he must go. I will make sure he is protected and sheltered. Out of respect to his mentor ... and his present caretaker."

"Father! Please, we're close, I know it! He isn't a shell of a boy. He understands the things that go around him, he never raises a hand to me, no matter how I strike him. Surely that must count for something?" Talia was desperate, something she rarely felt. She struggled to keep her composure, not wanting her hard work to be in vain.

"You wish for something that will never happen to this boy, who isn't even a blood relative. Your maternal instincts have controlled you for too long." If it had been anyone else, Talia would have killed them for saying that. She glared at her father instead.

"Don't tell me that, when you too have wanted something from him."

"I will be honest, when I first found out about his inability to feel emotions I thought it would make him an excellent assassin, one who wouldn't feel remorse or guilt and would kill anyone. But this-" he flung his arm in Jason's direction. "- this is not fighting. This is him surviving off muscle memory and instincts. An assassin fights offensively not the defensive style the boy uses. He only attacks after he has been attacked." Ra's began to walk towards the exit. "He will not love you anymore for what you are doing. Say your goodbyes to the boy."

Talia scowled at her father. What she was doing for Jason wasn't out of love for Bruce. The slender woman sighed and turned to the control panel, pressing a button and spoke into the microphone. "Session is over." The few ninjas standing stopped, bowed at the black panel and walked off. Several of them had to pick up the ninjas that were laying knocked out on the floor. She entered the training room and walked up to the boy that stood in the middle, looking at the ground. She knelt in front of him, running a hand through his hair to tip his head back so she could look him in his blank eyes.

"You were destined for more than this." She spoke the words that his adoptive mother had told him years ago. Talia hadn't been there at the time but with the amount of digging she had done to find a reason as to why he had returned- if it was genetic or an event that had happened in his childhood-she had uncovered a video from a shop camera, Catherine whispering the words fervently to the little boy who was scowling in front of her, in a similar pose to what they were in now. Talia's skills in lip reading were more than enough to make out the words.

"Let's go." She steered the boy to her own quarters, tucking the boy close to her side. He seemed to melt into her side. "Leave us," she commanded the guards stationed at her doorway. They bowed and left her. Talia walked in, heading towards the window, smiling at her son as she passed him. He cooed at her and waved the throwing star around, the blade slightly blunted so he wouldn't seriously hurt himself. Jason ambled slowly in after her and Damian's attention shifted onto him. He gurgled at him, smiling and lifting his arms up telling Jason he wanted to be lifted up. Jason walked over to him, bending at the waist to pick him up. Talia didn't even look as the zombie boy picked up her son, knowing Jason wouldn't hurt him. Damian giggled in delight and slapped Jason's shoulders.

"Damian," Talia scolded. "Don't hurt Jason." His injuries still pained him months after he got them. He couldn't tell her but she knew from the way he moved. She had instructed her assassins to not injure certain parts of his body whilst they were sparring.

"Sowwy Jayjay," Damian apologised. Jason nodded and bounced Damian, his way of showing Damian he was forgiven. Damian shrieked in delight, throwing his chubby baby arms around Jason's neck. Talia smiled at the sight reflected in the window, her smile quickly fading as her green eyes focused on the scenery outside rather than the reflection in the glass. Her sharp, calculated gaze swept the courtyards. All the assassins were in different places from normal and there were much more than normal. Her eyes widened, her head jerking up, as she realised her father was going to bathe in the Lazarus Pit, the reason for the increase in security and a plan began to form in her mind. She turned, plucking Damian out of Jason's hands. Damian made a noise of protest.

"Hush, my son, Mother is going righten this horrendous wrong." Damian quietened and she put him back in his cot. She rushed to her wardrobe, wrapping a green robe over Jason's shoulder and grabbed his hand dragging him out of the room as Jason's hand reached out towards Damian due to the toddler making another noise of protest. Jason kept his eyes in the direction of her room, turning his head and keeping it in awkward angles so he could remain staring in Damian's direction. Several times, Talia took a longer route, the detour allowing Jason's head to turn out of a painful position.

"My father is right, I care deeply for you," she murmured, releasing his hand to ruffle his thick hair. She grabbed his hand again, unwilling to let her guard down for long, and directed him down a smaller pathway. It led to an open cavern, a green liquid filling most of the space. There were no stairs into the pool, Talia taking a less used route to decrease chances of bumping into guards. For a brief second, she wondered if her father knew of this path to the Lazarus Pit but told herself to concentrate on the matter at hand. She directed Jason to the edge. With a gun in her left hand, she pushed him with her right, eyes scanning the cave to see if anyone had heard Jason's noise of surprise.

She drew herself back, into the covers of the shadows. Her skills as an assassin let her conceal her presence with what little cover she had. She was good but so were the guards around. If a patrol was ordered to investigate the sudden noise, they would spot her as they walked past. Before any indication of a search had been issued, Jason broke the surface of the liquid, screaming in agony. She threw away all stealth, the cry giving everything away.

"Come with me." She held a hand out to Jason.

"What? What is happening to me?" Even though he was confused, he still took her hand and allowed her to guide him through the labyrinth. They got out of the castle and ran away from the compound, the leaves and branches of the trees hitting their bodies as they sprinted away. The shouts of the assassins and barks of dogs told them they were already being pursued. Talia handed a bag over to Jason, it containing everything he would need to survive until she found him again.

"Run to the cliff, it's directly in front of you. Swim until you find reach land," she barked at him.

"But what about you? Won't your father be mad at what you've done?" He asked. Talia slowed down, turning to face the people behind her. Even now he was worried about her.

"I will stay and hold them up. Don't worry I'll be okay, get out of here." Jason nodded and ran away. "Good luck," she whispered to his retreating back. The assassin squad burst out from the bush and she turned to them, using her maternal feelings towards Jason and her anger at them trying to hurt him to punch harder and faster. It took over thirty of them but eventually they subdued her. She didn't let them knock her out, letting them tie her hands to her back instead. She walked back to her father's castle, head held high as if she had done the right thing. And to Talia, she had.

* * *

Her father ordered the guards to leave when she was dragged back to his throne room. She cut through the rope keeping her hands bound behind her and looked at her father without fear in her eyes. Still, she stood one step below him a small sign of respect.

"Do you know what you have done? The evil you have set lose?" Her father snarled at her. She looked down onto the stone floor

"Ask me," she spoke quietly. "Ask me if I would do it again."

"Would you do it again?" He growled.

"Yes. In a heartbeat." She looked up, stared defiantly straight into his eyes. "And I wouldn't regret it."

"You think you can play mother to the boy? Telling him what Catherine once said to him will not make him your son." Her eyes widened in alarm, how did he know what she had said? Talia's mind raced to find an answer, coming to the conclusion that a camera must have caught her saying the words to Jason.

The doors banging open had her breaking eye contact with her father as she turned to see what was happening. Jason, tugging and snarling, was dragged into the room an assassin on either side of him, their hands firmly holding his flailing arms. Her heart sank as he was tugged forward. He hadn't managed to escape the island.

"At least we got to him in time. Kill him." Ra's ordered the men in front of him.

"NO!" Talia yelled, throwing herself at her father. Ra's reacted quickly, grabbing her neck and spinning her around to slam her back into a stone pillar. Talia winced at the pain. She looked over Ra's shoulder, seeing a movement of green. She shook her head at the figure and it stilled.

"LET HER GO!" Jason yelled at Ra's. The four hundred year old man was quick enough to turn and see the dagger sailing straight towards his unprotected neck but with his dominant hand around his daughter's neck, he couldn't catch the blade. Luckily for him, his Dark Angel fell from the ceiling, catching the weapon before it could harm Ra's. The male stayed crouched, his weight distributed evenly, a stance that allowed him to move in any direction. Unlike Talia's Dark Angel, Ra's' Dark Angel wore an outfit similar to the assassins that lived in the compound just with an armour plate on his chest and many more weapons on him. It made it harder for people trying to kill Ra's to determine which assassin was Ra's' Dark Angel thus making it more difficult to pinpoint where Ra's was.

"That is a League of Assassin throwing blade," Ra's pointed out. "How did he get that, he's been a zombie for the past year? He couldn't have had the thought to keep it on him."

"He took it off the guard to his left," it was Ra's Dark Angel that answered his question. "He used the Clockwork Dragon to get out their holds and take the blade from the guard's thigh. And he didn't aim before he threw the blade."

The Clockwork Dragon was a League of Assassins move. Jason had kicked the guard to the right of him's leg back, throwing him forward, off balance and used the body weight of the guy attached to his left arm, to roll over the back of the right guard, taking the left guy with him. As the left guy began to fall, his back to the hard stone, the impact more than enough to knock the breath out of his lungs, Jason had slipped his hand out the guard's hold and whilst they were both in mid-air, unsheathed his throwing dagger. He had landed on his feet, kneeling down to lessen the force of the landing on his bare feet. He had then sprung up and thrown the dagger at Ra's, moving too fluidly to stop and aim.

"How could he have learnt that?" Ra's, the man who was always a step in front of Batman, looked shocked. Talia laughed.

"Guess I was right in saying he understood what was happening around him."

"Unhand her!" Jason yelled, glaring at Ra's. Ra's let go of his daughter, Talia massaging her bruised neck the moment she was released. He walked towards Jason. Jason shrunk back slightly but didn't look from Ra's cold, penetrating stare. Jason shifted his feet apart, lowering his hips and getting into a battle ready stance.

"I am impressed." The words were not what Jason was expecting.

"Wait, what?" Maybe not the most articulate of sentences.

"I am astonished at the skill you possess, learning moves that were never taught to you." Ra's had a cunning look on his face.

"Thank...you?" Jason felt disconcerted at the look Ra's gave him. He seemed to be calculating something.

"Do you know what a 'Dark Angel' is?" He asked. Jason shook his head.

"They are the protector of an al Ghul. They remain in the shadows, guarding the member of this family they have been assigned to. They will gladly give their life to ensure the safety of the person they are protecting. They are the most loyal person to that member of al Ghul, their ward can always rely on their Dark Angel to safeguard them, even when everyone else can't. They will never abandon them and can be trusted when no one else can. In some ways, they are their 'Guardian Angel' but they lurk in the shadows and will annihilate anyone who dares harm the al Ghul they have sworn to defend."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Jason asked. He looked like a wolf, his teeth clenched in a snarl and hackles raised at the enemy in front of him. Everyone knew that the boy below Ra's was just that, a boy. Ra's could easily take him down. Jason wasn't a wolf just yet, he was still a little cub yapping and growling at things too big for him to take on but he had the potential to become an unstoppable force.

"My daughter had a child a few years ago-"

"Yeah I know him." Jason interrupted, eyes widening when he realised his mistake. He still kept looking at Ra's but backed up a bit more and relaxed his stance, showing he meant no harm.

"Damian is the heir to the League. He will surely be targeted, the al Ghuls have many enemies, most who won't think it below them to kill him whilst he is still an infant." Jason's eyes narrowed as he deduced where this was going. "I am appointing you as his Dark Angel."

"Wha-?" Ra's hadn't finished though and carried on.

"Damian will begin his training soon. He must be trained in the art of killing so that he can defend himself, should the need arise. Not that it will. You will travel around the world learning, from masters, the trades of an assassin. These skills will aid you in protecting Damian. You will also be assessing their teaching abilities so that Damian will be taught by the best."

"O-Okay." Jason steeled his voice and looked down at the floor. It was as close to a bow as he would do, especially to a man such as Ra's.

"Then it is settled, you will leave tomorrow to begin your training."


	2. Chapter 2

The flight back to the League of Assassins was quiet. The few people that were around Jason did not speak. Jason looked out of the window, watching the world move by below him. Absently, he rubbed his hands together as if there was still blood on them. He had killed the teacher Ra's had sent him to. Jason sighed and rubbed his face, knowing he was going to have to debrief Ra's and Talia, both wanting to know how it had gone. Jason settled back into his chair. He was tired but he wasn't going to fall asleep. It would leave him too unprotected. Instead, the young male settled in his comfy chair and waited for the plane to land.

  
"Why did you kill him?" Talia asked him, sipping her tea. Jason slouched in his chair, eyes moving around the room, peering into the darkest of corners. He was learning, and at a fast pace, but he still had so much more learn. He thought his answer through.

"It wasn't because of him."

"Him?"

"Bruce. Batman." Talia raised her eyebrow, a gesture for him to continue. "I didn't do it 'cos I'm Robin," a pause. "Or _was_ Robin. I did it 'cos he was selling children into slavery. He had so much money but he wanted that little extra." He glared at the table. Talia took this new information in.

"I'm not Robin anymore. _He_ would have let him live. But the man deserved to die so I killed him. I know I'm not a hero, I'm working for the League of Assassins for God's sake. But what he was doing was wrong and he had to be stopped. No, he had to be put down, killed so he would never do it again. He had to be made an example of, to scare others from doing it." Jason dug his fingernails into his palms, his knuckles going white.

"An anti-hero," Talia spoke.

"Huh?"

"They're people who fight but don't have the same moral compass as heroes. Some kill villains, others work for both good and bad. You could be one of them."

"I'm a Dark Angel." His response surprised her. It had been only a few months since he had been appointed that, but he had already thrown away his other identities and had given himself fully to protecting Damian.

"Yes, but sometimes they are sent out on missions. If the missions are hard or important, then sometimes an al Ghul will send their Dark Angel out as they know they will succeed. The League will be using your skills as well. Damian is still young, not many know about him. You will be his protector but until he gets to the stage where he needs one, you'll go on missions for the League. Maybe not now, you still need to gather more skills, but soon."

Jason nodded and drank his tea. He noted it was Earl Grey, the one Alfred gave to him at the Manor.

"Why give me tea that Alf gave to me before I died? Wouldn't that make me remember them? Make me want to go back to them?"

"I trust you, Jason. You have accepted the title of Damian's Dark Angel. Nothing will make you go back to them." She looked at him in sadness. He shifted away, turning to look around the room again. Talia knew she should tell him that Bruce had replaced him, but it might make him angry again. The Pit's effects had been wearing off, his anger becoming more manageable but something like that might make him insane again. She pretended that that was the main reason and not because she knew it would most likely hurt Jason and she didn't want to hurt him. "I've also poisoned your drink."

To his credit he didn't spit all out. He didn't look too shocked either, just stared at the liquid deep in thought. "I thought it tasted slightly off. I assumed it was because Alfred hadn't made it." Talia noted that he had called his dear butler by his proper name and not by his nickname. She smiled, he was already distancing himself from them. Of them all, Jason had been the closest to the butler. It had taken a while for the teen boy to refer to the aged male with anything other than the vast number of nicknames he had given Alfred but hearing Jason correct himself and speak his full name instead of a fond, shortened version proved he was steadily growing more deattached to both Alfred and the entire family.

"A big mistake to make," she smiled at him. "Never assume things. Follow your gut, it is often right." Jason nodded at that, bringing the tea up to sniff at it.

"It isn't going to kill me."

"And why would you say that? You don't have much knowledge of poisons, that will come in a few more months."

"Ra's wants me to be Damian's Dark Angel so you're not going to kill me. Hurt me but not kill. This will probably make me feel really sick, take me to the edge of death but I won't die. You're building my toxin immunity." Talia smiled at him. He was good. "I would say the poison is either Heatherbane or Wolfsbane."

"Neither. It's Thornsbane. Still, I'm impressed you narrowed it down to its family." Jason's lips twitched at that. Talia rose. "Go sleep it off. I suggest you put a bucket near to your bed. The guards will notify me if anything goes wrong." Already the poison was beginning to work. Talia's face was blurring out of focus. He nodded and stood up, walking out of the room. Talia rose her eyebrow at this, silently following him as he walked down the corridors to his room. Jason grabbed a bucket, put it next to his bed and managed to tug his shirt off and slip his shoes off before he fell onto the bed. She stood at the doorway and looked at him. A figure dropped from the rafters landing next to her. They unfurled their body and looked at Jason.

"Impressive that he managed to get himself to his room without any aid, take his clothes off and grab a bucket." Her Dark Angel told her. Talia smiled.

"Jason will become a fine Dark Angel."

  
When the poison was finally cleared from his body, Jason was back to training. He had two weeks to train in the League compound before being shipped off to a poison master. After his last ordeal with poison, he wasn't looking forward to it.

A foot kicked at his face, muscle memory alone stopping him from being hit by it. Jason stepped back a few paces, putting some space in between his sparring partner and him. She smirked at him, running at him and aiming a punch at his chest. Jason's right hand pushed it down, left hand swinging up to hit her cheekbone. She ducked it and landed on Jason's right side, crouching down. Jason didn't let go of her left arm and was tugged down to her level. Before he could let go, she had turned her body, pulling Jason. She threw him over her body and placed a foot on his chest before he had even landed. Jason sighed and dropped his head on the mat, showing defeat. His assailant smiled and stepped off him, reaching her hand down to help him up. Jason took the hand, pulling her down and raised his legs to kick her over his head. He rolled, tucking his legs over his head and rose to his feet, spinning to face her. She was already on her feet, a smirk on her face.

He went on the offence, running at her and tried to punch her. She blocked him perfectly, getting a few punches in on his unguarded ribs. The fight was fast paced, Jason's body moving without thinking. He turned out of a headlock, managing to elbow her in the ribs. He heard her grunt in pain, but it didn't stop her. She kicked the back of his left knee taking him down. He fell to his knees and she flipped over his shoulders, hands braced on both his shoulders to help her with her forwards walkover. She grabbed the back of his neck to take him with her. Her feet landed on the floor and as she straightened, she used her momentum to pull him up and over her head. A foot to his spine pinned him down. It stayed there for a few seconds before it left.

"Don't think I'm ever going to help you up again." Jason laughed, rolling onto his back. He flicked his hips up, curling his legs up to his chest as he placed his hands on both sides of his head. He pushed off of his hands and brought his legs down so he landed on his feet. His bruised ribs protested at his kick up but it was a dull pain, something he could easily ignore.

"Well, I was told if I see a chance, take it." Jason grinned at her. She smiled back at her.

"It was a good fight.

"It lasted three minutes, that hardly counts as a fight."

"Most of my fights last less than three, be proud that you managed to last long when you've only started your training." Talia's Dark Angel smiled at Jason. He rolled his shoulders, sweat dripping from his chin. He dropped into a battle stance, hips low, hands in fists and the woman in green replicated his stance.

"Let's dance, Lady Shiva."

* * *

"Your fighting is getting better," Talia praised Jason. He was sat on his bed a white towel over his shoulders, using it to dry his hair. He had just come out from the shower, washing the sweat from five hours of fighting off. The sun was beginning to set, casting orange along his walls. Jason was topless, grey sweatpants covering his bottom half. He wiped a water droplet off his forehead with the end of his towel, his black hair plastered to his skin. Talia glanced at the white streak in his hair but looked away just as quickly. She knew it made Jason self-conscious.

"Come with me." She left no room for argument, not that Jason would. He stood up, throwing the wet towel in the hamper and grabbed a black tank top, pulling it on as he strode out after her. He had grown and now stood a head taller than Talia, allowing him the advantage to look over her head as she led him. She turned into her wing of the compound and Jason rose an eyebrow. He hadn't been in there for a while, instead living in a small apartment close to the training halls. When she turned left instead of right, leading him away from her room, he rose an eyebrow again. His hand crept to the dagger on his thigh, his eyes searching for traps.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"You told me the only person I should trust is Damian."

"I thought you would trust me though."

"I do... I did... It's just my...

"Your training, I know. I'm happy you're on alert, you will become a fine protector." They walked to the end of the corridor in silence. Talia opened the door and gestured for Jason to enter. He walked in, Talia closing the door and walking in after. It was dark, the curtains drawn. Within a few seconds, his eyes picked out the two guards stationed underneath the window, their heads just visible. There were weapons hanging from all walls and deep shadows in each corner. He was skilled enough now to know there weren't any figures hiding in them. The only figures in the room were his, Talia's behind him and the smaller one in front. He could make out black hair, similar to the shade of Bruce's. The boy stood straight and didn't slouch unlike him at that age.

"Mother, why have you brought another weak assassin?" Jason's eyebrow rose at both his tone and words, from the insult to the mother part. So this was Talia's son. He had yet to be introduced to him but he could vaguely remember a small boy who he would pick up when the child demanded it. His time as an almost zombie was hard to remember, faint recollections that seemed more like dreams than memories. Jason was happy to not remember most of it, though he had wondered if the small boy he sometimes saw in his dreams and faint memories was Damian. He had discarded the thought, needing to prioritise his training over meaningless pondering. The small boy in front of him turned around, freezing when he took in Jason.

"Damian, this is Jason." Damian's eyes were wide and were looking directly at him. Jasons felt himself flush down his neck at being in the limelight. Damian walked cautiously up to him and Jason tried to make himself look as non-threatening as possible.

"It... it is you.." Damian breathed.

"Do we... know each other?" Jason asked, looking at Talia. The boy, who looked like four at the oldest, stared at him. His hands reached up and Jason took the invitation, reaching down and picking him up. He placed the boy on his hip, the boy wrapping his legs around him. His torso was so large now, the boy's feet didn't meet at his back. Damian hooked his arms around his neck, nuzzling his face into his shoulder. Jason had a brief dèja vu of doing this before the Lazarus Pit, picking up a smaller boy who had black hair.

"Damian..?" He pulled the boy away from his shoulder so he could see him properly. The boy smiled at him

"You remember me? I thought for a second you had forgotten about me. Where have you been?" The young boy demanded.

"Your mother did as she said and rightened a wrong. I've been away training," Jason told him. Even though the boy seemed a bit bratty, he was his Dark Angel and would always answer him. "I'm your-"

"-Your new literature teacher." Talia interrupted Jason. She subtlely shook her head and Jason got the message. Don't tell Damian he was his Dark Angel. "His name is Jason Todd. He was your Jayjay."

"I know mother. Even if I hadn't been taught to memorise things, I could never forget Jayjay." Damian gave him a little smile and Jason suddenly had a picture of him when he was younger, smiling and gurgling up at him.

"Your studies with Jason begin tomorrow. Rest now, my son." Talia took Damian out of his arms and walked over to the king sized bed. Jason moved to the bed as well and drew back the covers. He glimpsed a knife under the pillow but didn't say anything about it.

"Goodnight mother, Jason." Jason smiled at the boy and followed Talia out of his room. He walked a little way down the corridor, letting Talia look at her sleeping child in private. When she came to stand beside him, he asked her the question that had been on his mind.

"Why don't you want him to know I am his Dark Angel?"

"Normally an al Ghul meets their Dark Angel when they are fifteen. Some earlier, others later. But it is always when they are teenagers. In the time it takes for them to mature, we can find them a Dark Angel that is suitable for them. Some Dark Angels die before they are introduced. I went through four before I met Sandra." She seemed proud at that.

"Didn't Lady Shiva join the League after you were a teenager?"

"Yes, so she killed my Dark Angel and took the role."

"Guess I should watch my back then." Talia smiled.

"I am sure you will be more than good enough."

* * *

 

The next time Jason saw Damian, he was wearing a black robe that trailed along the floor and covered his trousers. A white sash was wrapped around his waist and the symbol of the League of Assassins was stitched over his heart. There were five buttons in a line going down his chest. The black sleeves were tight until the material reached his elbows and began to flow out a bit.

"Jayjay," Damian greeted. He was still young and there was a hint of happiness in his tone.

"Professor Jason Todd," Jason corrected. Damian looked taken back and slightly hurt. "While I teach you about literature," he waved the book that was in his hand. "I'm your professor, not your friend Jayjay." Damian nodded in understanding and Jason smiled. "Alright, let's start with my favourite book, Pride and Prejudice."


	3. Chapter 3

Jason sharpened his blade, eyes blank. Cleaning his weapons and keeping them in good condition always relaxed him. He sat on his bed, his blades around him. The young male had collected many weapons since he had began training. He had already cleaned his guns and had put them back where they belonged. Jason looked up at his walls, weapons covering almost every inch of it. He had brought back so many weapons that the wall separating his rooms and the  living apartment next to his had been torn down so he could have more space. He had remodelled the extra rooms to hold his weapons, now owning weapons room.

"Talia has summoned you to room 31," Jason was trained to such an extent that he didn't jump at the voice but turned and threw the blade in his hand in one sweeping motion. Lady Shiva caught the blade, looking at him unimpressed. "If that's how you treat women in your bedroom, no wonder you have none around."

"Ha-ha Sandra," Jason laughed sarcastically. She threw the blade at him, Jason catching it easily. He dropped it on the bed and walked out of his room. Sandra walked next to him and chatted idly to him. Talking to her was easy, whenever they were in the compound together they would spar. She had taught him so much, from hand to hand combat to weapon handling. They were close, both being Dark Angels. Sandra had opened up to him, talking about her past, her sister and the daughter she had never met. Jason in turn, spoke about his death and resurrection and being thrown into the Lazarus Pit. She stayed behind when they arrived at room 31, letting him go in on his own. Talia stood near to the end of the long room, a table next to her. He walked over to her, senses on high alert. She had been springing traps on him at random, trying to catch him off guard. She smiled at his hesitance.

"This no trap," she told him. The male didn't relax, keeping his hands near his sheathed knives. When he was standing in front of her, he relaxed a little but kept his back guarded. "Relax, I called you here not to test you." Talia gestured to the briefcase on the table. "Go on."

"Is it going to explode when I open it? Spray gas at me?" Talia rolled her eyes at him.

"It is a gift."

"That makes me even more suspicious." Jason opened the briefcase, holding his breath and standing ready to duck. When it didn't explode, he looked in. Resting in the middle of the foam was a shiny red helmet. Talia moved to stand next to him.

"Do you like it? Be honest." Jason picked it up and inspected it from every angle, peering into it to look for explosives. Talia rolled her eyes at his actions but let him finish. Once he saw that it was clean, he held up to the light, looking at it.

"It's... really bright. Too red. Targets will spot whoever is wearing it before they can kill them. The shininess will give them away," Jason told her honestly. Talia nodded at his answer. "Who's it for?"

"It's for you."

"Why?"

"We believe you are finally ready to go off on missions. You'll need something to both hide your identity and show people who they are fighting against. The helmet will be changed to fit your requirements tonight and Ra's will brief you on your mission tomorrow." Jason smirked. Finally, he could put everything he had learnt into practise.

"The Joker was part of the Red Hood gang," Jason told her.

"We can change it if you want. Make it black."

"No. After all, I am a ghost from the past."

* * *

"So you're going away?" Damian asked. It was the hour he got before his bedtime, where he could refine his skills such as violin playing or painting or just read. Damian was sitting in front of a canvas painting whilst Jason read another book. He knew that Damian was painting him, Damian telling him not to move every time he shifted. If Damian's demands weren't obvious enough, Jason could see the painting of him in the window. He didn't mind staying in the same position, something he was used to from his training. 

"Yup kiddo. Should be gone for a week." Jason didn't look up from his book. He liked this time when it was Dami and Jayjay, not Damian al Ghul and Professor Jason Todd, the heir to the League of Assassin and his Dark Angel.

"Don't miss me too much," Damian told him. Jason scoffed.

"As if I could ever miss your snarky comments."

"Stop moving." Jason normally hated taking orders, especially from a bratty younger male but he was Damian's Dark Angel, even if the boy didn't know it, and he would do anything he ordered.

"Explain to me again why you couldn't just order the books?" Damian asked. He had told the younger male that he was going away to buy some books, not on a mission. Damian knew that Jayjay and Jason Todd, his professor, were the same person but he didn't know about Jason's training or his mission to protect him.

"'Cos they're probably gunna try and cheat us. Gotta make sure the books are what I want."

"Surely they wouldn't try and cheat the League of Assassins?"

"They think I'm a rich snob who wants to get an original copy of that book trilogy. They don't know they're dealing with the League of Assassins. They wouldn't sell to us if they did know." Damian pouted.

"Jayjay?" Damian spoke in Arabic.

"Yeah, Little One?" Jason slipped into the language as well the words not as fluid as Damian's, who was speaking his first language.

"Where did you come from?" He asked. Jason knew he was going to ask eventually, Jason's Crime Alley accent slipping in more and more every time he was with Damian, the kid's presence relaxing him.

"From Gotham. My dad was Latino so I can speak Spanish though." It explained why his accent differed slightly from most others living in Gotham's most violent street.

"What's it... like in Gotham? Did you ... meet the Batman?" Damian asked, this time in Spanish, pausing to get the words right. Jason smiled as Damian spoke in his mother tongue. He replied in Damian's native language.

"Crowded, dirty, full of crime. As for Batman... yeah I guess you could say I met him." He hadn't told anyone about his time about Robin, not even Talia or Sandra.

"Is he as cool as he sounds?"

"He thinks he can intimidate everyone. But he doesn't understand. He doesn't get that, eventually, people will stop fearing him. What does he do then?" Damian seemed to be a fan of Batman. Jason had to tell him that his "hero" wasn't that amazing. "And he can't keep his promises. He lets people get hurt in his war against crime. He doesn't care about the casualties. He'll let his archnemesis beat you and then kill you with a bomb but he won't avenge you. No, he'll just replace you." Talia had done a good job hiding that but he had uncovered it anyway. He didn't mind her trying to conceal it, he would have done it as well. "I have a long flight ahead of me, forgive me Dami but I must retire now so I am well rested for tomorrow's trip."

"I understand. Sleep well." Damian looked sadly down at the half finished painting.

"When I come back you can finish it. I will stay in the same position."

"How did you know I was painting you?!" Jason chuckled, already out of the room before Damian could finish his sentence. 

* * *

"The mission was a success." Jason knelt in front of Ra's. The Demon Head nodded.

"Were there any setbacks?" The mission had gone well, he had killed the targets and had come back before the week was over.

"No." He looked up. "But a lil' trust would be nice, you didn't need to send your Dark Angel to babysit me." Ra's half smiled at that.

"I sent him to see how well you would do on the mission. If I told you, you would have acted differently." Jason couldn't disagree on that. "You may take your leave. You have a three day rest and then you will have another mission to complete."

"Yes sir." Jason bowed and walked out. He strolled around the complex, debating where to go. He thought about going to the training hall and training for a while but he was tired from his mission. He let his feet guide him. They took him to a door, faintly hearing a violin. He knocked, listening for the "Enter." He walked in to see Damian practising his instrument, playing it from memory. He smiled slightly when he saw Jason.

"Jayjay," Damian greeted. "You are back earlier than expected."

"Yeah, turned out they were cheating us. I didn't stick around."

"Oh. I was looking forward to reading them with you."

"Please, I've taught you everything you need to know." Jason just managed to get the sadness out of his tone. Damian couldn't keep the emotion off his face.

"Mother says I will be beginning my training soon." Jason had heard as well. Damian wasn't even five years old, too young for Jason's tastes but he didn't argue.

"I've heard. You will do splendidly, I'm sure." Jason smiled at the boy. "So, want to finish your painting?" Damian nodded, getting the painting out and arranging himself as Jason sat in the same place in the same position, grabbing a book. Jason saw that the background had been finished but Damian hadn't painted in him.

"Why didn't you finish whilst I was gone? Pretty sure you have a photographic memory." Damian blushed.

"I didn't want to rely on memory." Jason nodded and let the boy paint, enjoying the peace and knowing it would become harder for them to have this time, him with missions and Damian with his training. 

* * *

Jason, just like Talia had predicted, was sent out more often on missions, each one harder and more dangerous than the last one. Jason rose up the ranks quickly. Even though Dark Angel was the highest and most honourable position in the League, many hated him for the rank deeming him unworthy of it. They eventually came around after seeing Jason fighting, coming back from every mission with little to no injuries. He made a name out of himself, people beginning to fear the Red Hood. His reputation spread around the world, people knowing him in even the smallest of lands. He confused people on a regular basis, he killed some but saved others. Not that anyone asked him why, too scared of him putting a bullet in them.

Within six months of becoming the Red Hood, he was given a platoon of Assassins to help on missions should he need them. The other two Dark Angels had platoons as well but rarely used them, calling on them only when they needed to protect their al Ghul. Jason still wasn't needed to protect Damian yet so he used his platoon on missions. When he wasn't on missions he trained them. Often he would travel to other parts of the world learning more fighting styles, some thought to be lost. His fights with Lady Shiva lasted longer too, going into double digits and assassins would flock to see them fighting. He still got beat but he was beginning to make Sandra sweat and carefully plan her moves.

Damian was too busy with his training that they hardly spoke anymore. He nodded at Jason when he saw him but that was also becoming less often, his missions becoming longer and more frequent. Often he would stay on a different island to Damian, or Damian wasn't around when he was. One positive was that Ra's was trusting him a lot more, letting him wander around the world more having been given several boats, jets, cars and motorbikes to travel around in.

With his hard earned freedom he used it to take an unofficial mission to Gotham. Jason stayed there for only a few days, not nearly long enough to show up on Batman's or Oracle's radar. All he took was a crowbar. It took him a day to find the Joker and he spent the next two beating him and getting his revenge. Only once the Joker was badly broken and bloody did he finally stop. He briefly thought about taking the helmet off and showing Joker who had beaten up but didn't. Jason Todd didn't exist anymore.

"Who are ...you?" The Joker wheezed. Jason smirked down at him even though the helmet masked his smile.

"A ghost from the past." He backhanded his murderer with the metal bar, two more teeth flying out of the Joker's jaw. The blow knocked Joker out and Jason walked out of the warehouse, getting into his jet and flying back. He hadn't felt that good for a while.

"Having fun?" Talia's voice came from the dashboard.

"Best two nights of my life."

"I'm sending you coordinates, get there as soon as possible." Talia ended the call, a set of numbers appearing on the small monitor. Jason set the plane on autopilot and settled down for the journey letting himself get some rest. When he awoke, he was five minutes away from where Talia had told to rendezvous. He took autopilot off and  
steered the jet, expertly landing it. The assassin jumped out of the plane and walked to where Talia was standing.

"Yes, Talia?" She smiled at him.

"Time to act like a Dark Angel." Jason rose an eyebrow at her cryptic message.

"Which involves?"

"Damian is going to climb those peaks," Talia nodded to the two twin peaks that looked like cat ears behind him. "You are to follow him and make sure he doesn't die."

"From injury or hypothermia?"

"Both. Find his limits, things he can do if he pushed himself and things he just can't do yet." Jason nodded, knowing it was going to be hard, he didn't know how much training Damian already had or where his limits were. "Your suit has been upgraded specifically for this mission. It's in your room, room 16. Damian begins his ascent at 7 tomorrow morning." Jason nodded and Talia walked off. He disappeared as well, looking for his room. Once found, he noticed the suit laying on his bed. It was exactly the same as the one he normally wore but white instead. A white helmet was placed above the suit.

"Alright, better get ready," Jason muttered to himself, grabbing a bag and throwing food, heat packs, blankets and weapons in. Once packed, he laid on the bed and let himself drift off to sleep.

He awoke an hour before the climb began. The dark haired male showered and changed into the suit, clasping the new helmet to his belt. He moved stealthily down the corridors, keeping in the shadows. It wouldn't do good for Damian to spot the Red Hood before he was set to climb. Jason ate a breakfast then set off to the bottom of the mountain, hiding his snowmobile around a corner. Whilst he waited for Damian to be dropped off, he scoped out the mountain, gathering as much information on the paths of the mountain as he could using his tablet. He plotted possible routes Damian would go and then hacked the League's databases, gathering as much intel as possible on Damian's training.

The sound of a helicopter brought him from the tablet. He used his helmet to zoom in, making sure it was the helicopter bringing Damian and not a random one he would have to shoot down. It landed and Damian got out. He had a small sack on his back and gear needed to climb a mountain on his belt. His mother gave him a kiss and then got back into the helicopter, ready to be taken away. She didn't once look at Jason. He let Damian climb for half an hour before he began to climb the peak opposite. Unlike Damian, he found it much easier as his body was bigger and stronger than Damian's and could reach further up. Several times he had to stop, sometimes hanging on a vertical cliff, holding on with his arms so that he wouldn't pass Damian and be seen. He managed to get to the summit before Damian and settled down, using his helmet to zoom in and track Damian's progress, turning to infrared several times to find Damian's heat signature when he was hidden by boulders or ice.

  
Damian had stopped for a break, taking a drink and a snack. He froze and Jason grinned, wondering what he was going to do next. It seemed Damian knew he was being watched. He ducked behind the snow just in time so Damian wouldn't see him. He looked at his tablet a picture of Damian still looking up at his position showing back at him, the picture on the screen being sent from the satellite in space to his tablet. Damian turned back to the peak once he saw no one and Jason peered over at him again. If he had been younger, back before he died and was Robin, he would have been angry at himself and at Damian as well as jealous that Damian managed to figure out he was being watched. Now though, he was happy that Damian knew he was being watched. He was proud of his little one, even though he was slightly off, looking too low and too far right. Still, impressive for his age. The other two Dark Angels often bragged about their wards and Jason had to sit and listen to them, Damian having not done anything worth bragging at his age whilst the other two had older wards with more tales to tell him. Ra's al Ghul's Dark Angel had countless stories that Jason loved to listen to. Just like Ra's, his Dark Angel had bathed in the Lazarus Pits to stay young and protect Ra's and so had many stories from years ago to tell.

Jason relaxed a little, his ward seemed skilled enough to make it to the top. Unfortunately, he thought too soon. Damian lost his grip and fell twenty feet onto an ice cliff. Jason made a strangled noise, going to shout but remembering he was meant to be covert and abandoned the noise halfway through making it. He zoomed in and knew instantly Damian had broken his arm.

"Hood, get him out now," Talia commanded. Of course she had seen her son fall. She had probably altered his new helmet to deliver a live feed to wherever she was.

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"You said to learn his limits. He can get to the top." He turned the comms off and waited for his ward to stand up. ' _Come on, Little One_ ,' he mentally urged Damian to stand up. A few minutes later and Damian stood up. Jason looked over to the right, where the base was. Picking up the binoculars he had brought in the case of an emergency, he looked over, searching the sky. He found a helicopter flying towards him. He grabbed his sniper gun, peering into the scope and aligning the cross hair to the tank of fuel on the helicopter. His fingers curled around the trigger. The male glanced back at Damian, the boy not knowing about the helicopter. If he fired at it, the helicopter wouldn't take Damian back but the loud explosion would alert the boy to its presence and he would soon realise he was being watched. Before he could pull the trigger, though, the decision was made for him. The helicopter pulled back. Jason swivelled the gun over to Damian, after both taking his finger away from the trigger and clicking the safety back on, using the scope to check the boy. He was busy creating a sling for his broken arm.

Damian looked up at the top, determination burning in his eyes. He began climbing, using all his strength to make the ascent. Jason tracked his movement with the scope of the sniper rifle. "You definitely are your father's son." Yeah, he also knew Damian's biological father. He continued to cheer the boy on as he struggled to up the mountain. Eventually, he managed to get to the top, sweating profusely. Jason could see he was tired, fatigue making his body shake. Within moments of him getting to the top, the helicopter flew back into sight. Less than a minute later, it was by Damian. A person jumped out, going to help Damian into the transportation but Damian shrugged the hand off and walked into the helicopter without aid, his head held high. Jason smiled.

"That's me boy." The helicopter rose and flew back to the base. Jason waited a few minutes for another one to come and take him to the base but there was no indication of another one coming to pick him up. He waited a few more minutes.

"You're not gonna come pick me up, are ya?"

"Nope."

"It's cos I aimed a sniper rifle at your son when I used its scope, isn't it?" The silence told him everything he needed to know. Jason groaned and rolled over. He began to pack the gun away into the bag, complaining as he went through the process of packing everything up. Damian had taken longer than planned to get to the top and now he had less than two hours of sunlight to get down. It had taken him three hours to climb up. Still, he would have something to talk about when he next met the Dark Angels and they started to boast about their wards. With a small grin, Jason began the trek down the mountain, already anticipating the next time he saw the Dark Angels. He wasn't going to let them talk. At. All.


	4. Chapter 4

Years passed and the Red Hood became a well known, well-trained assassin. Several times he had been given a mission to take out an almost unknown hero of the Justice League, a small reminder, normally to Batman, that the League still existed. He was on the Bat's radar, even though they didn't have any information on him. Many called him a ghost, for the simple reason that people didn't see him unless he wanted them to. His 100% success rate had drawn people all around the world to either hire him, which he bluntly turned down- he was loyal only Damian- or try and kill him though none had succeeded. He used them as an example and they soon got the message. He was the best the League could offer, Talia's and Ra's' Dark Angels both belonging to them and not the League. They were rarely drafted on a League mission.

Jason watched Damian grow up and had even begun training Damian as the Red Hood, training him to fight and kill. It didn't take him long to find out his lessons were Damian's favourite even if they only happened twice a month or twice a year, depending on Jason's schedule. The years granted Jason experience and had over five hundred assassinations under his belt. The male was a force to be reckoned with, he was one of the League's most valued member and spent more time on missions than not.

On Damian's tenth birthday, after defeating his mother, he was finally allowed to meet his father. Talia had been the one to tell him. Jason managed to get to Damian before he left for Gotham. The night before he departed, Damian and the Red Hood had sparred together. It allowed his ward to release his stress and nerves at finally meeting his unknown father. Damian hadn't shown any signs of the nerves but Jason was an expert in reading people and knew his Little One was nervous. After he had called an end to the session, Damian protesting and wanting longer, he gave Damian a gift. It was a blade, in the shape of a lose 's'. The blade split when it reached the hilt, a small part of the blade curving around the hilt. The hilt was plain and black, wrapped with a material that gave it a good grip. The end of the hilt had another curved blade.

"It is a good, sharp blade. It has saved my life several times and has been with me for many years. Now I give it to you." Damian had taken it, a grin on his lips as he looked at the weapon. Damian bowed and left, walking to his room. Jason left the training hall too, jumping over the roofs and stripping. He dived through the window in his room and tugged on the black professor robe, putting it on as he rolled to his feet and grabbed the wrapped box and walked out of the room. The run couldn't even be called a warm up and he hadn't even been left panting. He strolled leisurely towards Damian's room, knocking on the door and entered when commanded.

"Professor Jason," Damian greeted him, holding no interest at his entrance. Years had passed and they hadn't spoken for a while. His training had changed him from the happy baby Jason knew to a cold boy.

"A present for you. To say congratulations." He handed him the gift and Damian took it, opening it. It was a set of books, the trilogy he had pretended to buy on his first mission.

"Thank you." Jason nodded and walked off back to his room. He tugged off his robe and put on a grey top, grabbing the last present for Damian and moved back to his room. He walked straight in, not knocking before entering and was rewarded with two throwing stars hurtling towards him. Jason could have completely avoided them, could have easily plucked them out of the air and thrown them with such grace it would have looked like they had just flown back to Damian as if he had a magnet that was attracting them back to him. Instead, he moved slightly to the right, letting the blades graze his head.

"Woah, Dami!"

"I am sorry Jayjay, but you should have knocked." Jason grinned crookedly at him.

"I will next time."

"There will not be a next time, I am leaving to meet my father."

"Oh yeah. Got another present for you." His second gift had been placed at the top of Damian's open suitcase, wrapped in a silk to protect them.

"You shouldn't have. I have already received two."

"Two huh? Who was the other guy?" Jason faked ignorance.

"The Red Hood! He gave me his blade," for a split second Damian looked almost excited. He ran and grabbed it from his table and showed it to Jason.

"Looks sharp," he commented. "Can I have your wrist please?" Jason didn't grab his wrist, knowing that Damian would probably try and throw him over his shoulder. Jason weighed a lot more than Damian, so it would have failed. Damian let him take his wrist, knowing he wouldn't hurt him. Jason wrapped a fabric bracelet over the tanned skin.

"What is it?"

"A bracelet. A remembrance bracelet. My madre gave it to me before she died so I could always remember her. Now I'm giving it to you, so you can always remember me." It wasn't a lie. Cathrine had given him it. Jason had put two different trackers into the fabric as well as a hearing device. "It can also be used to electrocute people." Jason then proceeded to show him how to release the voltage, enough to kill a man. Damian grinned and jumped into Jason, throwing his arms around his broad shoulders as he let himself have a moment of emotion.

"I'm going to miss you Jayjay." Damian burrowed his face into his shoulder.

"Hey hey. I'll always be by your side." It had been taken metaphorically but he had meant it literally. He would always be by Damian's side.

 

Talia took him to Gotham and invited Batman onto the boat. She had planned to introduce Damian at a later date but the attack on their computer had forced her to speed things up. Talia broke the news to Batman that her father, the man who lived for so many centuries, had died just five days earlier in an attack, just days after Damian had beaten his mother to meet his father. Jason, who was hidden behind a curtain, listened as she told the story to Bruce. His green eyes never strayed to the caped man in dark grey who was once his father, staying fixed on Talia. Although not fully at ease- he doubted he would ever feel the luxury of being completely relaxed ever again- Jason knew an attack on the boat was near unlikely that he allowed himself to recall the battle.

_Jason had been at the compound, a rarity, when it had been attacked. He had jumped quickly into the fray, with only the black bodysuit he had on. He didn't even have his helmet and had been forced to throw his red fabric hood over his head for protection. He had a few guns and blades but not nearly enough to take the masses that had been descending from the helicopters. Any unfortunate person he had run into had been mercilessly killed and robbed of their weapons. While he wasn't a looter, Jason had been desperate. It wasn't like the dead corpses would use the weapons anyway. The Dark Angel also had snatched the weapons of the fallen as well so he would be more prepared when he got to Damian. He had gone straight to Damian's aid jumping past Talia who was busy gunning down the attackers, her Dark Angel at the bottom of the tower and making her way to Talia. He hadn't even looked at her. As the male had passed her, Talia had shouted at him to remain hidden. As much as he hadn't wanted to, he had done as he was instructed finding Damian and hiding. Any shuriken that flew at the boy, he had shot down or thrown another one to hit it off course. When Deathstroke began to duel him, he had discretely fired a poison into his neck, finding it in the belt of an assassin he had killed, the needle piercing through his cloth mask and slowing him down._

_Never had he felt prouder of Damian for holding his own or more scared, terrified to find the child dead. Damian had run after his grandfather, Jason tailing him. In his panicked state, Damian hadn't even noticed he was being followed, even when Jason gave up silence for speed. The Dark Angel had stopped only once when he spotted the figure of Ra's al Ghul's Dark Angel slumped on the floor. There had been over ten arrows in different parts of his body, blood pouring out of him. Daggers and other sharp blades had stuck out of him and both his arms and left leg had been broken. As Jason had passed him, he had grabbed his legs and with his final breath, blood gushing out of the cut in his neck, had spoken his master's name. Two strong warriors had died that day, the entire League reeling at their loss._

_Afterwards, Sandra and Jason had sparred, both turning up at the training mats long after the sun had set. They had sparred together, not saying anything until after they had fallen down too exhausted to stand. They both had spoken of their shock at Ra's' and his Dark Angel's deaths. Jason had chosen then to tell her he was leaving for Gotham with Damian. Sandra had looked sad and pulled him close to her. Just like he had done to Damian, she had given him a gift; a long thin blade and bade him good luck on his next journey._

Movement brought his attention back to the present. Talia drew back the curtain that had shielded Damian, revealing Bruce's son to him. His remark about him being smaller than he expected almost made her laugh. Jason's influences seemed to still be with the boy after years of not seeing each other. Bruce took the boy with him and the boat departed from the port it was docked at. A few minutes on the journey back, she called out to the figure behind the curtain.

"You can come out now." Jason emerged from behind the silk. He was in his Red Hood uniform. It was a black armour with red lines running along his body. He had a black belt, darker than the rest of his armour, filled with weapons and poisons, with several belts on his thighs, holstering guns or blades. He was decked out with blades and guns, two twin katanas crossed on his back. He had kneepads the same colour as his belts and his boots came just below the knee.

"We will be stopping in a few minutes for you to disembark. Your duties as Damian's Dark Angel begin now. Follow him and protect him should the need arise. Keep yourself in the shadows and only reveal yourself in an absolute emergency, only if he's about to die." Jason nodded.

"Did he notice you were behind him?"

"No, mam." Damian was good, Jason was better.

"Good." Talia looked out the window. Jason began to walk out of the room.

"You know you owe me. I told you he would take him and make him be the next Robin." She smiled at this, letting herself feel at ease for a few moments. No wonder Bruce had loved the boy, he could make anyone laugh. Like she had said, the boat stopped a few minutes later to drop Jason off. It was probably unnecessary, he had most likely jumped off and was swimming to shore as she was looking at Gotham.

"We don't know that for certain. Beloved has never been the most trusting of people," she whispered as she watched Gotham grow smaller.

 

One of the first things Jason did was slip into the Batcave and place several cameras and audio recorders in the vast cave as well as in Damian's room and the library. He then hacked into the surveillance system surrounding the Manor and planted a code that would forward any alerts of breaches to his phone so he would be notified if it happened.

It became clear quickly that Damian's want for revenge for his grandfather was almost as great as his mother's. He used the Batcomputer and any other resources to investigate the sudden attack and the person behind it. Talia had already told Jason everything she knew to better prepare him in protecting Damian.

It was him who had nudged Damian in the right direction in finding Ubu. It was subtle enough that Damian had thought he had found it himself without outside interference. Jason followed Damiam as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, making his way to Ubu's apartment. Jason landed on the roof of the building on the other side of the road, flipping the dark hood up and over his helmet to conceal the colour of it, even though Talia had made it a darker red. He watched as Damian picked the lock to the sliding door on the balcony. It took Damian seven second to unlock it. Jason could have done it in four. His fingers twitched as his whole body thrummed with the desire to help the boy in anyway possible. Jason continued to watch Damian, wondering if that was his ward's plan. Damian pulled the window open and then climbed his way up to the roof. Jason smiled as he saw his Little One's plan.

Ubu arrived with two women. Upon finding the open door, Ubu got his gun out and fired at the most obvious places where Damian could have hidden. Jason jeered at the man, as if his Little One was stupid enough to hide in the storage cupboard. Damian jumped down from the roof, the glass window shattering as he fell through it. Ubu immediately shot at him, Damian kicking the gun put of his hand. Jason smiled as Damian pushed Ubu back. Ubu threw a lamp at him, Damian drawing his katana and slicing through it. The girls left the apartment, running away as Damian jumped up on the table. Ubu picked it up, throwing it and Damian to the floor. Jason jumped onto the roof ledge and shot at Ubu, worried as Damian hit the floor. The gun wasn't loaded with bullets but with small round balls that were covered in spikes, similar to a miniature mace. The barbs were coated in poison and he fired three onto Ubu's bare shoulder. Ubu brushed them off and snarled at Damian, thinking he was the one who had thrown them. Ubu slipped on two metal gauntlets that had sharp claws extended over his fingers. Jason took out another gun, this one loaded with real bullets and aimed it at Ubu's forehead. He wasn't going to let him kill Damian.

Ubu jumped over the fallen table and began slashing at Damian, the little boy deflecting the blows with his blade. He pushed Ubu back then attacked him, driving Ubu into a part of the room that Jason couldn't aim into. Damian left his chest unprotected and Ubu took the chance, slashing down and ripping his tunic. Thankfully he had a kevlar vest underneath the tunic and the blow didn't draw blood. Jason sighed in relief. Damian kicked Ubu into the wall and back into the range of Jason's gun. They fought a bit longer, Damian staying on the defence whist his Dark Angel tracked Ubu with his gun.

  
"Where is Deathstroke?" Damian asked, his voice in Jason's helmet. He was wearing his bracelet with the tracking and audio devices which were linked to Jason's helmet. Jason  had also placed several of them on Damian's boots, sheath and sash around his waist from when they were in the boat and when he broke into the Manor.

"You think it would be that easy? Just ask and I would talk?"

"I don't want it to be easy." Damian threw his blade to the side. Jason made a noise in the back of his throat at the action. He knew Damian was a good hand to hand combatant but Ubu now had the advantage in weaponry. It took longer to subdue and kill an opponent with your hands than with a weapon. Damian leapt at Ubu, punching him in the face. Blood spurted from his nose as he was kicked into the glass door. It broke and he crashed into the balcony wall. Ubu stood up and began running, jumping off the balcony and onto the roof of the next building. Damian picked up his sword, sheathing it and then followed.

"Atta boy," Jason praised him on having the forethought to grab his sword. Ubu jumped off the roof and into the wall of the next building. He sunk the claws into the wall and fell down it. He jumped the last few feet as Damian threw a rope and swung down. He landed on a lampost and slid down it as Jason moved with them, one gun pointing continuously at Ubu as he jumped from roof to roof. He didn't even think about how he used to do that, in a different uniform with a different weapon in his hand.

Ubu looked back, seeing Damian still chasing him and ran across the road. Damian followed suit, Jason ready to pull the trigger and shoot a tire of a vehicle to stop it hitting him. Damian, however, didn't need it, jumping onto the tops of the cars to get across. They clashed once more, Damian keeping his own against a guy who was twice his height and thrice his weight. He knocked the claws into the ground and jumped up, landing on Ubu's face and breaking his nose. Ubu crawled on the floor, his face bloodied and bruised.

"You'll get nothing from me." Damian raised the sword above his head.

"Either I get answers or you get the sword." Jason saw him just before he hit Damian. He had grown unaccustomed to heroes swinging around and so forgot all about the vigilantes that prowled Gotham. Jason fired his gun, the bullet cutting through the rope but he was too late. Nightwing's momentum brought him to Damian, his outstretched legs kicking him and sending him over the chainmail fence. Dick caught the flying sword, holding it up like a fierce warrior.

"Goldie," Jason growled. He was tempted to take the sniper rifle that hung on his back, a clasp on his left shoulder and another on his right hip holding it in place, and shoot Dick in the head. His new costume had no protection for his head. He didn't in the end. Bruce would probably think Damian was the one to kill him even though he didn't have any weapons on him- Damian had been taught how to handle the older, more traditional weapons such as swords and daggers. They were more reliable than guns, which had the tendency to lock up or run out of bullets at the worst times. As his Dark Angel, it was Jason's job to keep him out of trouble, not put him in it.

"I could kill you. It's not like Bruce would miss you, if my death is anything to go by. But then again you're the golden boy. He loves you." Jason muttered, aiming his handgun in the direction of the vigilantes,  as Damian jumped at Dick with a snarl. Whenever possible, Jason threw as many throwing stars at Dick, getting his shoulder, thigh and back without either one of them knowing it. Even though Damian cut him a lot more, Dick had been doing this for longer and eventually tied Damian up making him hang from the lamp post with a white length of material around his mouth to gag him. As much as Jason wanted to jump down there and rescue Damian, he knew Dick wasn't going to kill him. Talia told him to only show if Damian's life was in danger. He was forced to stand there, his ward swinging slightly until Dick cut him down and took him to the cave. Before Jason could head back to his safehouse to activate the cameras and see how Bruce reacted to Damian's fight, he turned to go to the hospital and give Ubu the antidote to the poison. If Ubu died, especially from him, Bruce would never trust Damian.


	5. Chapter 5

Jason was in his safehouse, memorising a map of Gotham. It hadn't changed much from when he used to live in the city, his time living on the streets allowing him to have memorised many shortcuts. The blueprints of Gotham's sewers were laid out in front of him and he looked over it, twirling a blade in his fingers as his eyes took in the many lines. A few days ago he had been busy pouring over a map that had all the skyscrapers and tall buildings in Gotham.

His gauntlet buzzed, notifying him about a change. He tapped the screen, one of his many offshore bank accounts popping up. A _'Guess you were right, T xx'_ message and a $1000 top up wasn't what he expected. His lips curled in a small smile. Of course he knew that Damian would eventually don the Robin outfit. He was pretty sure he had bet $10 but Talia was so rich, she could blow this money and wouldn't even notice. Becoming Robin both made his job as Damian's Dark Angel easier and harder. As Robin, fighting crime put him in dangerous situations much more frequently but he had Batman to protect him. Jason knew Batman was a strong, capable fighter skilled enough to protect Damian. But Jason also knew Batman had failed at saving his partner once and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

The first time Damian wore the mask and cape, a lead took them to the Gotham Coliseum. Jason murmured a curse, the abandoned building made it hard for him to follow without being noticed. Batman was always extra cautious when he was in an enclosed space. It was hard but not impossible. He stayed hidden in the shadows and followed them keeping a bare minimum of thirty metres in between them. The cowls had several different lenses but the zoom wasn't the best, Bruce having gone for quantity over quality- though the quality wasn't something to be complained about- his helmet's on the other hand was much better, specifically designed to have a great, sharp zoom. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet, the dark red shifting into a black. The button on his belt turned the red lines on his black suit a dark grey. He had stuffed his leather jacket in a secure location, the clothing more for show than protection. His black armour kept blades, bullets and the cold from harming him that he didn't need the jacket.

The silent male hacked into the cameras, easily changing the feeds to play footage from the day before allowing Damian and his father the protection of not being seen by the cameras accidentally. He directed all recordings to his helmet the electronics in it allowing him to watch them as he skulked around, knowing where Batman was and the rogue assassins. Talia had sent him all the information she had found about Deathstroke's betrayal and attack on Ra's, knowing it would help him protect his ward. He already knew Langstrom's connection, they wanted him to create his formula to build an army of bat assassins but he couldn't give it them without them being tipped off.

Batman and Robin snuck out of a small closet, stealthily moving to another door that led away from the corridor. Two assassins turned to look back, picking up on the whispering of a cape. Before they could investigate, he created a small explosion further along their patrol route, the noise reaching them but not Batman. They ran forwards, their katanas already in their hands, Jason shooting them both in the heads before they could utter a warning of a breach. He stuffed the dead bodies in another small room and broke the handle to stop others from entering it and finding the dead assassins. He took their identification, a number stamped onto a molar tooth at the back of their mouth and pocketed it, making sure to send it to Talia later so she would know a few more of the assassins who had turned against them.

Jason followed them down the levels, Batman holding Damian to his side as the grappling hook transported them down the flights of stairs. He walked up to a vent and took its cover off, Damian crawling in and him following. Batman reached onto the floor to put the cover back. _'Least he's not a total idiot,'_ Jason thought as his grappling hook lowered him to the bottom. He took note of Batman's actions and copied him. Batman was trying for stealth, making sure that no one could tell he had breached their walls. He probably wanted a quick in, quick out with as least amount of attraction or noise as possible.

Jason took a detour and hopped into Langstrom's lab before the other two. He waited, crouched in the shadows, for Batman and Robin to arrive. His helmet picked up on their footsteps and breathing and he didn't jump when Batman spoke. When Langstrom didn't give the answers Robin wanted, the boy flung him over his shoulder, the force throwing the man into a table and made him bounce off. Langstrom crashed into the door, the rotten wood shattering under his weight and he landed in the corridor just as a patrol unit walked by. Luckily for Jason, Robin had thrown Langstrom in his direction allowing him to easily slip out and begin to kill the assassins, stopping the entire unit from entering the room and attacking Damian. Others soon arrived, running into the room without paying him any attention. He could hear the fight from in the room and pushed himself further away from it, moving into the corridor to stop the assassins from entering as they ran from that direction. As much as he wanted to turn back and help his Little One, he knew that Damian was capable of fighting and he had Batman by his side. The best thing for him to do to help Damian was to stop as many assassins joining the fight.

He heard footsteps running in the opposite direction, not Batman's heavy tread or Robin's light one and he assumed it was Langstrom's. He was too busy fighting the assassins to turn and capture him, knowing it would help his ward's mission for revenge. His reputation as Red Hood and the stories of his kills had the assassins in front of him wary of fighting. He was more than confident in his skills to take them down so Jason changed his helmet vision to look at how Damian is doing, relying on his other senses to know when the assassins were about to attack him.

A cloud of smoke dispersing through the corridor notified Jason that Batman was on the retreat. He used the smoke to cover his entrance into the room, unsheathing his sword and skillfully killing the few remaining assassins as he made his way through the room, following the two. The two ran into the pitch, the Man-Bats waking up and diving at them. Immediately his guns were in his hands and he was shooting them, in the back, chest, legs, feet or necks. Those too close to Damian he shot in the lower extremities, making them release Damian. He didn't even look at Batman, shooting bullet after bullet into the beasts near Damian to help him fight the assassins. The mufflers on his guns cancelled any sound and Jason silently thanked Lady Shiva for buying him them. Not once did Batman look up or even know the Man-Bats were falling from injuries inconsistent with their attacks.

Damian and Batman swung onto the railing and began to run, the Man-Bats opening their wings and flying to join them. It made it harder for Jason to shoot them, them falling out of the sky when neither Batman nor Robin had attacked them would be too suspicious. Jason stood on the railing on the opposite side of the two and watched thw two run. The Man-Bats' movements made it just slightly harder for him to get any good shots in. Damian hitched a ride on one of the Man-Bats, reaching the other scoreboard with Batman following. They stood there, outnumbered and Jason unable to help them without blowing his cover. Batman threw a batarang at the roof, he and Damian shooting a grappling hook and flying out of the hole in the stadium roof. Jason knew the batarang was an explosive one and braced himself in time for the explosion, the debris falling onto the flying Man-Bats and crushing them onto the floor. His helmet showed signs of life and he sighed as he realised he had to clean up their work. He sent a line up to the ceiling and dropped several smaller shrapnel, poison gas or normal bombs onto the pile, making sure they were dead. 

A grappling hook reeled him onto the roof and he ran after Batman who was running after Damian who was running after Langstrom. That made him smile. Before Damian could hurt the doctor with the blade in his hand Batman got to the two. He blindfolded Langstrom and took him to the Batmobile, intending to take him to the Batcave.

Jason let them leave, knowing he couldn't follow them into the Cave and looked back at the stadium. There were still assassins in it and the plans may be in there too. He was still loyal to Talia too, not being Damian's official Dark Angel. He also had to destroy any Man-Bats that had a bullet in them before Batman came back and realised someone had helped them. He tapped a few buttons on his gauntlet and was rewarded with the camera and audio feed of the Batcave. He listened in on Langstrom as he cleaned up. Jason sent any new information to Talia as well as all the information on the computers that the assassins didn't have time to destroy. On it included Deathstroke's location.

* * *

Once he had tidied up, he got onto his plane, putting it on camouflage mode and waited for the Batplane to fly out of Gotham. A few hours later and it finally did. He followed it, the cloaking devices on his transport enough to not show up on the radar of the plane in front of him. As the plane flew on auto-pilot, he quickly hacked into the League's compound and disarmed the security. The Bat-plane landed and he did too after waiting a few minutes.

"What is it?" Batman asked Robin. Damian looked around, surveying the compound.

"There should be more security than this. The weapons should have fired at us."

"Perhaps Deathstroke is too confident in his ability to hide that he took them offline." It was a bad idea, Batman had fought him enough times to know the man was thorough. They hurried into the old castle like building before they could think of any other excuses. Jason stalked them, his posture hinting at his confidence at being in a place he was much more familiar with. He watched them search the compound, Batman quickly finding the hostages, seeing, or rather hearing, through the false wall.

As the girl thanked Robin, she slipped him a console that gave him his mother's location. The audio recorder and tracker he had managed to fire onto Damian whilst they had swung to the coliseum picked up on the message. He stilled for a second as he heard Talia had been captured. Where was Lady Shiva? Why had she allowed that? He was loyal to Damian only but Talia had done so much for him and he owed her so much. Since Damian didn't know about his Dark Angel, Jason was loyal also to Talia until he was revealed to the boy. Then his loyalty would lie only with Damian. Jason had to admit though, even after he would be revealed to Damian, if Talia ever needed him, he would help her in any way possible. He walked into another room and began trying to contact Lady Shiva.

It took him awhile, long enough for Batman and Damian to leaven, but he found out that Talia had attacked Deathstroke, her Dark Angel by her side. She had ordered Lady Shiva to go on ahead of her but had been captured before she could meet back up with her. Her Dark Angel had tried to find her, falling into a trap instead. She had killed over one hundred men, a big blow to Deathstroke's small army but she had eventually succumbed to the gas and wounds she had received. He found her location in the Sahara Desert and sent his platoon out to get her, instructing them to take food, water, bandages, warm blankets and weapons for her.

* * *

A few days later and Damian and Bruce were in London. He knew Talia was off the coast of the isle of Lewis and Harris. He subtly made the arrangement for Damian to be transported to Scotland and then to the island, dropping off an oxygen mask for the swim to the oil rig. He swam to the metal building half an hour before Damian, knowing his larger body had more strength and stamina than the boy and would arrive before him. He arrived an entire hour before the boy and got to work on killing as many patrols as possible so that Damian wouldn't be spotted. All guards at entrances were drugged, making their reflexes slower and it harder to fight, so when Damian came he would find it easier and less tiring to take them out without raising any alarm in the boy at the fact there were no guards on the oil rig. He hijacked the radios and cameras, stopping guards from communicating with one another (though they rarely did, they were the League of Assassins) or cameras to detect Damian. After Damian climbed the ladder and began taking out the guards, Jason followed him, disposing of the bodies that Damian left by throwing them into the sea.

Damian jumped down after the elevator that held Slade, using the ropes to slow himself down so he landed on top of it softly. Jason bit back a curse and waited thirty seconds before jumping after him, falling down the ropes at a slower pace. Sandra alerted him of Batman's arrival via the comm link in his helmet. She had been too weak to go and collect her ward, though she had tried anyway. Jason had persuaded her that she would just be a hindrance in battle and she had reluctantly come to see his point. The deadly female had stayed behind, sitting in front of a computer and gave Jason advice.

Damian ran into guards, turning back and running away. He lost them, turning the corner and jumping down a vent shaft. Jason sighed as he pushed the cover back over the hole. The shaft was too narrow for his large body to slide down so he had to rely on Sandra to direct him down to the very bottom.

Damian slid out into a massive tavern. A Lazarus Pit glowed in the middle, a bunch of Man-Bats sleeping above it. Damian was too busy looking at the hanging monsters to see Deathstroke walking in from a tunnel but Jason did. He brought his guns out, ignoring Sandra's gasp then snarl as she saw Talia dangling limply in his arm. She hissed at him telling him not to take the shot with her ward so close. His respect towards her was the only thing keeping him from putting a bullet in Deathstroke's brain, the man a big enough threat for him to reveal himself to Damian. Talia was there as well so if something bad happened with the reveal she could smooth it over.

Deathstroke raised the gun at Damian. Jason saw Talia subtly shake her head, telling him to stay down. He tensed his entire body, teeth clenched as Slade pulled the trigger. Talia threw herself in front of the gun and Sandra's yell made him jerk his head at the sudden loud noise so close to his ear. He was thankful that he still had the safety on or he would have shot himself in the foot. Damian ran away, swerving as Deathstroke shot at him just like he had been taught. He jumped over a rock, hiding behind it as the bullets began to destroy it. Soon it was completely gone and Damian stood up and looked at Deathstroke. Before Deathstroke could pull the trigger and make Jason show himself by disarming him, Batman fell down the tube and threw a batarang at the gun in Deathstroke's hand, the gun flying out of his grasp.

"Never been happier to see him in my life," Jason muttered. "Guess he finally learnt how to reach his Robin in time to stop them from dying."

Deathstroke ordered for the Man-Bats to kill them as he ran away. Three batarangs that mimicked the echolocation of a bat were thrown at the walls, the noise hurting them. They flew off, driven mad by the pain, cracking the elevator pipe as they crammed themselves into the tiny space. The water flooded in, short-circuiting the electronics and trapped them under leagues of water. Batman cradled Talia as Damian followed Deathstroke. Jason ran after him, sprinting around the edge of the cave so he wouldn't be spotted and ignored the cries of Sandra to stay and check on Talia.

He watched Damian begin to duel Deathstroke, his fingers itching to pull the trigger and send a bullet through Deathstroke's head.

"Don't be stupid, Jason, Talia told you not to reveal yourself." Jason snarled in response, jerking forward when Slade threw a blade into Damian's arm, running and kicking it through his bone. He went to deliver the finishing blow but Damian defended himself, managing to knock the blade into the metal behind him and snapping it in half. Slade threw it up and caught it, holding it in a different way and stabbed Damian's other arm, pinning it to the metal wall. Jason twitched, hands clenching as he wished to strangle the life out of Deathstroke. Damian pushed his arm up the dagger, freeing himself and pulled the katana out of his other arm. He threw smaller batarangs at his opponent, Slade catching two but the third one getting him just above his only eye. The two clashed, the sound of swords hitting ringing out. Damian slashed Deathstroke's chest, grabbing a katana out of his hand. Slade pulled out a gun, Damian managing to deflect the bullets with his blades. He lost his broken katana over the edge of the gangway they were on, Damian throwing an explosive batarang in retaliation. Slade ducked but it came whizzing back, landing on his gun and exploding, sending it falling down. Slade was extremely skilled and Jason couldn't sneak in hits like he had done to other opponents Damian had fought. Still, Damian was holding his own, keeping Slade busy and he managed to throw his deadliest poison dart he had on him at Slade. It hit him but Jason wasn't sure if it had nicked his skin. On top of that, he had been trained by the League and his toxin immunity would be far greater than an average criminal. Jason wasn't sure if it would even slow him down.

Deathstroke broke Damian's arm and Sandra had to override his suits system to send a volt of electricity through him to stop him going to his ward's aid. He laid on the metal, panting at the pain, his head spinning.

"I-if h-he dies..." He threatened Sandra.

Eventually, Damian got Slade onto the floor. He went finish him but lowered the blade proclaiming himself as his father's son, as Robin. Slade slumped over and Robin walked away. Damian ran over to his mother who ushered him into an escape pod. She looked back at him but Jason nodded his head, telling her to go. He would find his own way out. They fired off, heading to the surface. Jason dragged his body up and ran to the closet pod, ignoring the pain. Slade fell down, off the gangway, and as he ran, Jason fired as many bullets as he could into the falling body, hitting vital areas to stop him from coming back. He threw himself into the last escape pod, Sandra sealing the door and sending it up to the surface for him. By the time he got there, the Batplane had taken Damian, Talia and Bruce back to the coast. Jason pushed the door open and began the swim back to shore. Sandra played his favourite songs to entertain him on the long way back. He knew from her silence that she had left her compound and was probably already making her way to Talia.

* * *

Talia said goodbye to Bruce, the submarine ready to take her back to the League. She needed to rebuild it, make it strong again. Damian walked up to her.

"Are you ready to come?" She asked him.

"If that is your wish, Mother." Her eyes softened as she beheld her son. He had fought well and she was so very proud of him. She saw the greatness in him, saw his potential. The glint in his eye, the confident smirk as he fought Slade, it reminded her of Jason. She walked to him, kneeling to his height. All she ever wanted was for him to be happy, her actions may not have shown her love but she had never wanted him to swallow the bitter taste of defeat.

"I wish for you to be happy. Learn from your father, he is a great warrior." She walked onto the ship, the same one that had brought Damian to Bruce and bade them goodbye, promising to come back for Damian when he had become amazing. The engines roared to life and soon it was pulling away. When it was far away that Batman wouldn't notice, it stopped for a few moments, the halt enough for Jason to slip on. He stood in front of Talia, dripping wet, his helmet clipped onto the base of his neck, the eyes facing backwards. They would send a signal to the comms in his ears if they picked up movement behind him, allowing him to have all his blind areas covered. In the shadows behind Talia, lurked Sandra. There were a few bumps in her green uniform from where there were bandages covering an injury. Other than that, and the murderous aura surrounding her, she looked fine, like she hadn't just been beaten up literally less than 24 hours before.

"Red Hood, Damian's starting a new chapter in his life, a dangerous one. I can no longer talk to you about his progress. Do what you must to ensure he becomes great." Talia looked only slightly worried, Jason by now knowing where to look to detect the emotion. He nodded and waited to be dismissed.

"Jason... don't let him die."

"I won't, mam." He made his way out of the room. A few minutes later the ship stopped for him to slip out, Talia knowing it was pointless as he had already disembarked and had begun his third swim of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say thank you to all who have commented on this. They make my day!! I'm sorry if I haven't replied, but I've read all of them and they're are so nice, they inspire me to keep writing.


	6. 6 Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This follows the plot of Batman V Robin.

After he had learnt the map of Gotham, he moved onto the criminals in Arkham's archives, going through their entire files and memorising their weights, heights, strengths and weaknesses. He was in the middle of Mr Freeze's when the comm in his ear buzzed to life.

"Jason," Talia's voice spoke into his ear.

"Yeah, Talia?" If he had been anyone else he'd have had his tongue cut off or even his head for talking with so little respect to an al Ghul. But he deserved to talk to Talia in a casual way after everything she had put him through from pushing him into the Lazarus Pit to making him go around the world and train to look after her son, as well as all the things he had done to keep her son safe. His back still tingled from the scars he had gotten when a six year old Damian had found a supposedly "abandoned" tiger cub and brought him home whilst, just metres behind him, Jason had fought off an angry mother tiger from killing Damian, her claws ripping through his armour and into muscle as she pounced on his back. Only the al Ghul's could bathe in the waters of the Lazarus Pits, the sole exception being Jason, but there were other pits called Hermes Pits. These pits, whilst unable to revive the almost dead, could accelerate healing as long as the wounds didn't cover all over the body. Unlike the Lazarus Pits, they couldn't restore youth, only heal. Still, it was better than nothing and Jason had the faintest of scars on his shoulders, unable to be seen unless he pointed them out. What stung the most was Bronze Tiger laughing at him, showing his claws whenever Jason walked past him. Jason took it in stride though. ~~He~~ ~~poured catnip all over Ben's room.~~

"Do you think.. you could talk to Sandra?" Talia asked. "She hasn't exited the training halls since yesterday morning."

"Y'know, you're really caring for the daughter of Ra's," Jason told her. "Sure I'll talk to her. Not sure if I'll be able to get through to her."

"Thank you. How is Damian?"

"Improving. If slightly begrudgingly. Doesn't like the no-kill rule," he told her, the pride in his voice easily heard.

"Thank you, Jason." It was times like these when he remembered she was also a mother. It seemed her maternal feelings extended further than Damian. She hung up and Jason called Sandra.

"Ayup," he greeted.

"What do you want, Jace?" She asked, panting. She had probably been doing hours of gruelling work.

"Talia told me you've been in the practise halls since yesterday."

"So what of it?"

"Look, Sandra, you were the one who told me I shouldn't push myl body too much. To let it rest. I think you should listen to your own advice."

"How can I? How can I rest when I couldn't save Lady Talia? What if Batman hadn't been there? What if she..." Sandra couldn't say the words but they both knew what she meant. "I failed her. I am unworthy to be her Dark Angel."

"You kiddin'?! Sandra, you're Lady Shiva, the only one who can go toe to toe with Batman and win. You're the most worthy to call yourself her Dark Angel."

"Slade took me out. He captured Lady Talia. My only job is to stop that from happening, to protect Talia and I couldn't even do that." Sandra continued to huff.

"You're not seeing it the way I'm seeing it. You took down one hundred men. Sandra, ONE HUNDRED MEN. You are the most kickass woman I have ever met. You are fierce and strong and a force to be reckoned with and you deserve the title of Talia's Dark Angel. If anyone else had that title, she would have been dead a long time ago." He heard her sigh and the soft rushes of air, made when she moved, stopped.

"m̀hgòi," she breathed. Jason knew it was Cantonese for thank you from his training in that part of the world. It wasn't often she spoke in her mother tongue and so Jason ingrained the word and how she had spoken it into his memory. "Do you remember the Golden Plate?" Jason scoffed at her question.

"Of course."

"Do it with me?" It was as close to her being weak as he would ever see, or in this case, hear. Even though he had been in the middle of something as well as being in a small apartment that wasn't the best for fighting, he indulged her. He kicked off his boots, toed off his socks and got into the middle of the room, falling into the stance. He closed his eyes and let his body begin to move, finding comfort in the fact that half way around the world Sandra was doing the exact same moves as him.

* * *

The first time he saw it, it had crept up so quietly that Jason had only just heard it. He whirled around, gun in hand and pointing at the masked being. It was heavily armoured and wasn't showing a slither of skin. It wore mostly black, with golden edges on its armour shoulder plates and gauntlets. Its gloves had golden claws on it and Jason couldn't tell if it was a man or woman under the black mask. The mask had red glass over the eyes with golden lines above and below the ruby circles, a golden beak like thing over its nose. There were golden owl faces on its shoulder plates as well as an entire owl stamped on its forearm protectors.

Jason couldn't decide if it was friend or foe, all it did was stare at Robin and the fact it did not grab any of the many weapons at its disposal put, Jason off. It seemed unaware of Jason's presence though, an advantage for Jason. It jumped from the ledge it had perched on, landing on the roof of the building below. Jason followed it, keeping an eye on Damian as Robin fought. When the gang was successful subdued, the black figure left, the shadows swallowing it up. Because Damian was his main priority, he didn't go after the being. He continued to stalk Damian from the shadows, following him and Batman until they called it a night. He got on his bike and tailed them, keeping the headlight off and enough distance that he wouldn't be spotted. Once he saw them enter the Batcave, he turned the bike around and headed to the safe house he had put all his computers in.

In his computer house, the Dark Angel began the task of finding out who the figure was. He searched through the League of Assassins system first, surprised that nothing even close to the figure came up. Next, he tried the Bat system and was rewarded with a name.

"Court of Owls," he breathed. He sent the information to his wrist gauntlet and logged off the computer, turning everything off. He walked to the door, grabbing a bag and locked the door. Jason hopped onto his motorbike and headed to the library. The locks were easy to pick and soon he was making his way down to the history part of the library. He had spent most of his time as Jason Todd in the library, reading book after book after book in the building he was currently in, and because of this, he knew where to go. He browsed through the history section, keeping to the history of Gotham. Anything that may have information he placed into his backpack. He wasn't stupid enough to read the books in the library and potentially get caught.

After an hour and a half, he walked over to the librarian's desk. When he had lived in Gotham, he had charmed the old lady into giving him the password to the computer. He didn't use it though, the time it took to hack the computer just slightly faster than logging in. When he was in, Jadon searched 'Court of Owls' into the library's search bar. There were several books, most of them about actual owls. There were a few books in the myths and legends part of the library and Jason kicked himself for not thinking about that. He typed in a command that did a more complex search, looking for the phrase 'Court of Owls' written in the actual book. He was given a list of four books, three of them from the myth section. He raised his eyebrow at the number as he logged off and walked to where the books were kept. Last time he had checked, there were 25,592 books in the library, most likely more since he had left. For only four to mention the Court of Owls, whatever it was, showed it was either an almost unknown myth or they were really good at hiding themselves. He took the books and checked them out, taking out a few more and used three different cards so if Batman ever came here, he would see that the books he wanted were either with a young five year old who loved owls, evident by the five books about owls, an old man or a young university student who had taken books about Gotham's History, to help her with an essay about Gotham's history most likely.

* * *

Jason was a quick reader and as he loved books so much, his reading had only increased in speed as he continued to read throughout his lifetime. He got through the books within four hours, the longest being about the history of Gotham and most of it was irrelevant. He sat on his bed as he finished the last book, rubbing the stubble that had begun to grow on his cheek as he thought. The one that had given him the most knowledge was one of the books on myths, telling him that the 'Court of Owls' was supposedly a society that ran in the shadows and were made up of Gotham City's oldest and wealthiest families who used murder and money to wield political influence. There was even a nursery rhyme about them. He tapped the comm in his ear and called Sandra. If the League didn't have anything on the Court then Talia wouldn't know about them either. Lady Shiva was his best bet as she had travelled around the world so many times she was bound to hear something.

"Casey," she greeted. She used that nickname for him to talk to him whenever she was in a room that she didn't know for certain wasn't bugged. It stopped any people listening in potentially finding out who Jason was.

"You busy, Aunt Diana?" He asked, using his own nickname for her.

"Not at all." He heard the snap of bone and a scream.

"You know anything about the Court of Owls?" He spoke the sentence in five different languages, speaking the verb three times as a result of the language switch. They were all languages he knew she knew and she was more than capable of translating the words.

"Not much, just whispers," she told him. Jason huffed. There was a beep and a click and then the line became ten times clearer, the background hum disappearing as she put the call on a safer line. "Check the archives of the League of Assassins," she advised him. Jason fell down onto his bed, brushing his hair away from his forehead.

"They aren't in it."

"Really?" Sandra masked the shock but he knew she was surprised.

"Kinda make sense though, the League only became interested in Gotham when they found out that Gotham's orphaned billionaire had gone off and had been training. It wasn't until the Batman emerged did they take an active interest in the city and put eyes and ears in it."

"So you're saying they're older than the Batman. That's a good.." She paused as she did the maths. "Sixteen years."

"The book said they've been around since colonisation times." Sandra stilled.

"Are you saying they're older than the League of Assassins?" She whispered, unable to conceal her shock.

"I don't know! It's what the books says. Another one says 1600. They may well be the same age or older than the League of Assassins."

"We need to tell Talia about this."

"And base it on what? A book?" He heard her sigh.

"Try and find more on them."

"Will do," his hand raised to his ear, about to end the call. "Oh, and auntie Dia, be careful."

"Right back atcha, Casey." 


	7. 6 Part 2

Jason spent the next few days searching the Court of Owls. In the daytime, he poured over books and articles, reading newspaper clippings on suspicious deaths or missing people, the oldest dating back a century and a half ago. During the night, he would follow Damian around Gotham and helped him win his fights. He was currently in Ichabod, Robin going there on a lead. Children had gone missing, all who had purchased a toy from Schott's Toys. Anton Schott had been taking children and had turned them into dolls, going so far as to modify some by cutting their hands off and replacing the missing limbs with flamethrowers or chainsaws.

The loathful man ordered them to attack Robin. Jason reclined on a window sill, the sniper gun in his hands resting on his lap. His back was leaning against the wall and he had his right leg laying along the window ledge, helping him keep his balance and not fall off the sill whilst his left one hung down. He raised the gun up and began to pull the trigger, shooting the children further away from Robin with a tranquiliser. A part of the roof collapsed a few minutes later and Batman fell in from the Batplane that hovered above. Jason cursed, knowing he would have to retrieve the darts afterwards to avoid Batman finding that someone had been there. As they were kids, Batman wouldn't use brute force to knock them out. Jason guessed he would, eventually, go for the knockout gas. Gordon would say that all the kids were knocked out with a gas and they would both believe it would have been Batman's. A few months ago Jason had gone as far as to break into the part of the Gotham Hospital that housed injured villains to get a blood sample of one that had received the knockout gas and had then recreated Batman's knockout gas, turning it into liquid form so he could get it into the bloodstream quicker whilst using a gun. The one he was using wasn't the exact same but its properties were similar enough that the police would think it was probably Robin's and wouldn't report it.

Anton ran away, Robin noticing this and running after him. Jason huffed, rolling his eyes and muttering how the kid didn't help him at all as he dropped down from where he had sat and onto the metal gangway that went around the whole building. He landed on it quietly, Batman hearing nothing as he moved to the exit, slinging his gun onto his back.

Anton sprinted away from the warehouse. Damian threw a batarang, it landing just inches away from the retreating man. He stumbled to a stop and turned around, falling to the snowy ground as Damian swung down and connected his feet to the masked man's chest, his momentum pushing Anton to the ground.

"You want to know about helplessness?" Damian asked as he withdrew another batarang, flicking his wrist so it snapped to its full length. "Let me teach you."

Anton whimpered and turned, scrambling up and ran away. Damian threw a rope, the end snaking around Anton's feet and tripping him up. He fell heavily and Damian placed the batarang in his mouth as he used both hands to pull the large man back to him. Jason felt proud as he watched from the tree he was in, off to the left, as his little ward pulled the much larger man back to him. The man pleaded to Damian, telling him how much he "loved them." Damian cut him off by jumping on him. He placed the sharp end of the batarang near Anton's uncovered neck, angling it so he could shove it down into his throat.

"Silence! I'll rip your heart out! You hear me, I'll tear it out!" He threatened. Jason's head jerked up, hand reaching behind him for his gun. He pulled it off his back, bringing it around to his front and up so he could look through the scope at the figure up in the trees in front of Damian. It was the same figure as the one he saw a few days ago. His finger curled around the trigger but didn't pull it, knowing Damian would hear it and see him and that really wasn't the way he had envisioned revealing himself. The figure didn't move, just continued to watch Damian. Jason didn't lower the gun.

Anton whimpered under Damian, the little boy snarling down at him. He raised his hand up, bring it down fast. The batarang landed on the snow next to Anton's head. Damian pushed off of him and stalked forward, muttering to himself, "justice, not vengeance." a few times. Anton rose up, hand reaching for the log beside him. Jason's gun moved, the cross hairs laying on the man's neck so the dart would kill him. His finger froze as he went to pull the trigger, knowing it would give him away. As he did this, the figure dropped down. It landed behind the man and ripped out Anton's heart. Damian turned around when he heard the familiar gurgling of a dying person. Anton fell down, revealing the thing behind him, holding his still beating heart in his hand.

"Don't doubt your instincts." A voice modulator distorted its voice. It sounded deep, like a man's but Jason wasn't fooled. He had heard one of Lady Shiva's and had been convinced it was a male talking to him. The being flipped backwards, jumping into the trees behind and Jason had to acknowledge his skill. Batman appeared a few seconds later.

"What have you done?" He repeated the question when Robin didn't answer him, seeing the gaping hole in Anton's back.

"You think that I-"

"After all these months together, all I've taught you, you revert to the assassin your grandfather wanted you to be."

"I could have done it easily but I didn't. Out of respect to you." Robin spat out. Batman looked surprised and opened his mouth to argue. Jason took that time to leave, following the trail of the being. How he wanted to stay and proclaim Damian's innocence but it would lead to a lot of explaining to Batman and he didn't have time for that; he had let the owl-being have enough of a head start. It took a few seconds but he picked up its trail again and raced after it. He was surprised at how skilled it was, several times doubting if he had lost it. Eventually though, he caught up to it. Jason stayed behind, not knowing how good it truly was. He grabbed a smaller gun, similar in size to a grappling but had a tracker in it instead of a hook. The male aimed and fired, it landing on the being's foot. He ducked behind a tree, peeking out from the branches to see if it had noticed. It carried on like normal. Jason followed it, keeping an even greater distance than before, knowing he could use the tracker to locate him again, even if it did lead him to a trap.

The being in black got to the edge of the trees and waited a few moments, perched on a branch. Jason waited as well, crouching on a branch with his feet moving out allowing him the ability to throw himself in any direction in a moment's notice and hovered his hands around his utility belt, ready to grab for a weapon should the being turn and confront him. But the being didn't turn around and attack him. It instead surveyed the area and, once it was sure it wasn't being followed- Jason ducking behind the tree trunk as its eyes passed where he was crouching, broke free from the cover of the trees. Jason watched it as it sprinted, with speed that surprised Jason, to a car and got in, turning the car on and driving away. Jason watched it leave, looking down at the small device that had a red dot on a map, showing him the location of the tracker.

Once he was sure the tracker hadn't been found, he doubled back and headed back to the warehouse. When the trees began to spread thin and forced him to walk on the ground, he made his feet fall further into the snow than normal; making it seem like someone who was heavier than him had walked across the snow. He knew Batman enough to know he would guess it was Harvey Bullock if he did see the footprints. By the time he got into the warehouse, Batman had got all the caged children out and they were huddled in the street, waiting for the police to arrive and take them back. The knocked out modified children were laying where they had fallen, Batman not wanting to risk the children he was with panicking if he left to get the other children. Jason walked around, erasing all evidence that he had been there, taking the darts out of the children's necks. He threw a disgusted look at the cages and missing limbs of the children. If that weird figure hadn't had killed Anton, then he surely would have.

Jason knew the being was connected to the Court of Owls, the owls on its outfit enough of a clue. The male walked out of the warehouse to where he had left his motorbike. He hauled it up from the ground and dusted the snow off of it. The tall male swung his leg over the seat and sat down on it, turning the engine on. He brought out his device that told him where the tracker was and began to head in that direction, easily steering the bike with one hand. When he got into the city, he once again left his bike in a little alleyway, using his grappling hook to follow the person. It eventually stopped on a building, Jason also stopping a few buildings away. He zoomed in with his helmet, seeing the one he had followed talking to a few others. Jason noted the differences in their uniforms, the small details telling him that the one he had tracked down was the leader, or at the very least, had more authority than the others. The other three nodded and the leader walked away. Jason was tempted to keep following him but he didn't want to risk a fight when he didn't have his more trustworthy weapons on him, having had to throw away the heavier ones so he could keep up with the Batmobile Robin had hijacked to go to Anton's warehouse. The tracker was still on the leader and the device was clever enough to remember the locations the tracker went to. It would mean that if the worse case scenario did play out, that being the owl thing finding the tracker and throwing it away, Jason would still know where it had been prehaps even its base. He didn't want to fight the being without knowing its strengths and weaknesses or having minimal understanding of its skills. Observing the other three would give him an insight on how well the Court of Owls trained their fighters and would give him a rough idea on how strong the leader was.

The beings made their way slowly to their destinations, so slowly they remind Jason of the zombie films he used to watch when he was Robin. The way they moved was so different to how their leader moved, much slower than it. Jason began to wonder if something was wrong with them, a broken bone or something but all of them couldn't have a broken leg. Jason let himself hang back, taking that time to check in on his ward. He pulled up the video feed from the cameras he had placed in the Batcave and saw Damian sparring with Nightwing. He watched, keeping an eye out for the lumbering figures, as Damian and Nightwing moved around the space of the Batcave. Nightwing continued to push Damian back but Jason wasn't too worried, knowing his ward well enough by then to know Damian was holding back if only slightly. A few seconds later and Damian elbowed Nightwing's forearm, forcing him to drop one of his metal sticks. Damian put some distance between them, raising his katana as Nightwing whirled his left baton.

"I don't need to be taught by a circus clown. My grandfather and his trainers taught me everything I need about combat. I was even taught by the Red Hood for awhile." Jason grinned at that, feeling touched that Damian felt the need to inform Nightwing of that. Jason could understand it, he had steadily risen up and was one of the top three fighters of the League, top two now that Ra's' Dark Angel had died, and Damian would want to rub it into Nightwing's face and prove how skilled he was if the Red Hood had taken an interest in him and had trained him. The Red Hood's complete success rate had given him nicknames in different countries all over the world, mostly describing his ability to kill. What scared people the most though, was his 100% success rate; the fact he was so fast and silent some targets didn't even know they had been killed and his ability to withstand huge amounts of pain. Damian leapt at Nightwing again, bringing the male back fully to the present. Jason winced as he saw Damian's faulty form, his arrogance costing him.

Nightwing deflected his blows, stopping his blade with his baton. He smirked down at Damian and kicked him, his other foot hitting the blade out of his hand. Jason snarled as his ward was beaten, wanting to go over there and personally kick Nightwing's ass for hurting Damian. Damian jumped up onto the railing, avoiding another kick, and ran up the stair railing, Nightwing following him. They fought on the second floor of the Batcave, above the Batcomputer and in front of the costumes that were hung up behind glass cases. Nightwing crushed Damian to one of them. Damian retaliated by pushing backwards, headbutting Nightwing and kicking off the glass. He flipped over Nightwing and threw him over his shoulder, Jason smiling at the show of strength. He punched Nightwing in his ribs, a cracking noise and Nightwing crying out in pain alerting Jason to the fact Damian had most likely cracked the rib. With a punishing palm strike, he shoved Nightwing over the railing; the masked man flipping in the air a few times due to the force behind the punishing blow. Nightwing, used to falling through the air, controlled his flips so he landed on the chair in a sitting position to avoid serious injury. Jason's smile widened as Damian was clearly the victor in the fight.

With the fight over, for now, he looked back up to see the beings he was following enter into the Gotham Museum of Natural History. He frowned, wondering why they would want to be there yet noiselessly slipped in after them. They led him to the owl part of the building and he waited in the shadows along a beam in the corner. Batman appeared a few minutes later. He took out a feather and put it up to the owl on display, Jason noticing that the owl was missing several feathers on its wings. Batman walked around the exhibit a bit more, looking at the other birds on display. He seemed out of it, unfocused on where he was. It was a nasty habit that Jason had outgrown and so when a clatter echoed around the room, he was the one to know its source.

A few heartbeats later and the three things he had been tailing leapt down from the dome they had been hiding in, landing in front of Batman. Batman spread his legs apart, bending his knees and crouching slightly, prepared to fight. Jason, who was sat behind and to the right of Batman, perked up, knowing he could use the fight that was about to happen to gauge how strong the Court of Owls was. Jason frowned at the figures in front of the Dark Knight, their arms hanging loosely by their sides and swaying slightly. None of them were really in any fighting stance. He shifted forward a bit to get a better look.

It was them who made the first move, unsheathing their weapons and charging at Batman. Jason watched with mild interest as Batman threw the first thing over his head, kicked the second one in the chest and threw a batarang at the third one, who swiped it out of the air with its arm. Jason raised an eyebrow at this. Their poor stances at the start of the fight had led him to assume they were bad fighters when they really weren't, hitting a batarang away was a higly skilled ability that few mastered. It jumped up at Batman who threw it down onto the floor. It caught itself with its hands, twisting and kicking out. Jason saw the blades slide out of its boots but didn't make a sound to warn Batman. The blades sliced through the armour over his chest and drew blood, Jason noting this down. They had good weapons which meant they must have ample amount of money.

Batman was forced backwards, defending the figure that attacked him from behind with both blades. Batman caught the arm, trapping it against his chest and broke the arm in three different places and elbowed it in the face. It fell down just as the next one came to attack the Batman. Batman, having switched tactics and had gone into defence, threw him over his shoulder, using the action to unmask the being. Jason made a noise of disgust, having turned his helmet onto silent mode so it wouldn't play any noise he made. The being got up again, using its legs only and flopping the top half of its body forward so its spine was straight again. It had white skin that was stretched tight over cheekbones, with a few greasy grey wisps of hair hanging from its almost bald scalp. Its eyes were golden and sunken. It made a growling noise as the other two rose up again. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. The being to its right flicked its broken arm, the bone cracking back into place. Jason mentally added speed healing or something along the lines of that to his notes.

"He's behind you," he commented as the armoured creature threw two sais at Batman, him deflecting one but the second one burying into his chest. He made a cry of pain but Jason just sighed, placing an elbow on his knee and resting his head on his fist as he continued to watch his previous mentor fight. With another bloody injury, the red liquid dripping from his back and chest from previous blows, Batman began to fight more viciously. His three opponents attacked him, one cutting him in the back as it leapt over him. He fought one, blocking its blades and kicked it away, throwing the one that leapt at him away. The third one ran at Batman as he turned to it, sliding along the floor and through his legs, scratching his thigh as he went past. Jason looked slightly more interested as he watched them continue to battle. They had sustained quite a few hits but none of them showed signs of pain or fatigue, unlike Batman. Batman turned to the next fighter and Jason saw the bomb on the one who had slashed his thigh. It seemed that Batman had finally realised they weren't human. The bomb detonated and destroyed the body as he continued to fight, breaking the neck of the one he was currently fighting. The person, if it was one, continued to fight, its head on back to front. The Dark Knight punched it a few more times and it fell onto the floor.

Batman turned to the last one, the one with the sais for a weapon and took out two batarangs. The metal blades created sparks as they clashed and Batman spun, elbowing the being and pushing it back just as another one handspringed into the fight. The two began to battle against Batman together. Batman continued to get stabbed, stabbing the one with the sais in the bottom of its back in retaliation. He whirled around to the one with the swords and the one behind him took the opportunity to plunge both sias into his backs. Jason tutted at the stupid mistake as Batman lunged at the one in front of him. The one who had stabbed him kicked him in the back, Batman turning from the kick. The opponent that was now behind him grabbed him by the waist and bent over, throwing him into the glass case behind. He threw the white mask that fell out of the case and it hit the one with the sais, knocking it down for a few minutes as he dealt with the one with the swords.

Jason watched it all, scanning the armoured people critically to find weaknesses. There were several, the fighters tending to keep themselves opened. It didn't mean much though as they didn't seem to feel pain and kept getting back up. Jason ran through a list of things that could give them this stamina, a speed serum or a strength one could give them the abilities shown but they didn't seem much stronger or faster than the average human being. By this time, Batman had lost a substantial amount of blood and he knew it as well. He threw a smoke bomb, using it to conceal his escape as he fired a grappling to the ceiling. He rolled out the window, the others following him. Jason stayed where he was, turning his helmet vision to heat mode to watch them run along the roof. He was surprised to see that the two pursuing him were very blue, unlike Batman's red, informing him their body temperature was much lower than a human's.

One of them threw themselves at Batman, him stumbling and falling through the domed window. It stayed attached to him even as they fell, the ground looming up. They fell onto the dinosaur bones that was thirty metres in front of Jason. He jumped down from his perch and made his way to where the two were standing above Batman. The one who had fallen with him flicked its broken arm and it straightened, looking like it was before it was broken. They stalked towards him, their weapons out and ready to kill him. Jason's footsteps were light and silent and so none of them heard him as he made his way forwards. Just before they were about to kill Batman, Jason activated a weapon that turned flesh into a liquid goo. The beings in front of him seemed to vibrate then melted away leaving only their clothes, armour and the black goo. Jason looked down at Batman, crouching to press the distress button on his belt that Batman was weakly reaching for. Batman's breath hitched but he didn't do anything, too weak to fight him. Batman looked up at him as he shrunk back into the shadows. As much as he wanted to say something, he didn't. He needed Batman to be on top of his game and mentally able so he could protect Damian if Jason was in a position where he couldn't. Remarking about how the injured male below him had let him die, which seemed like a lifetime ago, would just put Damian in danger and so he bit his tongue and stayed quiet as he walked backwards into the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

After Jason had exited the museum, he checked where Damian was. The boy had made his way out of Wayne Manor and was in the heart of Gotham, just ten minutes away from Jason- five if he used a shortcut. The male used a line to get him up onto the rooftops then made his way to where Robin was, in the middle of beating up two would be muggers. Jason watched as Damian demanded they get up so he could continue to beat them; Damian was a violent boy, his time as an assassin in the League of Assassins making him that way. Jason saw the owl figure in the dim alleyway. He didn't grab the sniper gun on his back, half sure it wasn't going to attack. Instead, his hand took out a smaller gun, ready to shoot at the other figure if need be. The owl man told Damian to kill them and that this time, he wouldn't. Damian looked down at the knife before up at the retreating figure. He ran after him, Jason smirking at the fact that his ward hadn't heeded his order.

"Who are you?" Damian called up. The figure paused, hanging onto the metal rail above the street.

"My name is Talon," it introduced. "Come on." Talon leapt to the roof of the building opposite of the metal rail he had been clinging on and Damian followed him. Jason stayed where he was, hidden in the shadows of the roof above. Jason pulled out the device that showed him where the tracker was, already knowing that Talon was the one he had tagged earlier. The Dark Angel followed the two, knowing that Talon was too busy with Robin and so wouldn't be as on guard as usual. It allowed Jason to venture even closer to them than he would have if Robin hadn't been there, his guard up- he wasn't going to take a chance and it end with Damian dying. Talon led Robin to a modern apartment, opening the glass window on the roof so he and Damian could jump down into the apartment. Jason hung back, switching his helmet vision to infrared so he could still see them through the cement. It was an upgrade that he greatly appreciated and, not for the first time, he was happy that he was part of the League of Assassins if it meant getting such cool equipment, that helped him protect Damian, for free. Talon flicked on the lights as Damian asked what the place was, flipping his hood down.

"Home," Talon told Damian. Damian went to stand in front of a mannequin that held a costume similar to the one the Talon was wearing, but with a few noticeable differences. "You can speak freely here. My respect for Batman and all he's achieved is high. But there are lines he won't cross," Talon made his way to Damian, hands swinging by its hips. Jason grabbed his sniper gun and aimed it at Talon, knowing it would shoot the bullet with enough force to go through the roof. "Perhaps out of fear or some... misguided moral code." Talon pulled out the sais that were crisscrossed on the wall next to the costume. "There are no lines I won't cross in order to reach my goal."

"So you've come to Gotham to...?"

"To do what Batman refuses to do. Eradicate crime and criminals once and for all." Talon moved to the mannequin that hung to the left of the one Damian was standing in front of and leapt at it, stabbing it three times in quick succession. He brought the blades back, spinning them in his hands before holding them both by the hilt with the blades angled down. He brought his hands up and stabbed the blades through the red glass covering the eyes of the mannequin. The man then took the left one out but kept the right one in and turned to Damian. "No lines. No limits. No rules."

He threw the sai at Damian who caught it easily. He rested the tip of it on his right hand as he looked at Talon. They conversed for a few minutes, Jason not lowering the gun. He had had enough practice that his arm wasn't aching or cramping up from the position it had stayed in for the last ten minutes. He knew he could easily hold the position for another hour and a half before he even began to feel an ache. Damian threw the blade into the mannequin's head in front of him before reaching up to tug it out. He threw it up so it flipped and caught it by the tip, handing it to Talon.

"Keep it, a gift." Damian looked surprised but didn't protest, pulling his cape to the side so he could slide it into his belt.

"Why me?" He asked as he followed Talon across the room.

"We're kindred spirits. I've been watching you for some time," he turned around to look at Robin as he said the next few lines. "I want you to join me." Damian looked to the side, an act of uncertainty. His gaze fell on a smaller owl uniform behind a glass door, his face lining up perfectly in the hood of the costume. He turned to look at Talon again.

"And if I say no?" Talon walked up to him. Jason, who hadn't taken his eyes off of him unlike Robin, saw him grab a small rod off the table. His finger curled around the trigger and aimed for Talon's head, ready to shoot the tall figure if he tried to attack his ward.

"When you've made your decision, use this to contact me," he offered it to Damian who took it, turning it around to have a good look at it. "It's not a tracking device. Feel free to give it a thorough inspection."

"I will." Damian turned and headed back to the window he had entered from.

"Oh, and one last thing. Don't tell him about me." Damian grinned.

"Not a word." He flipped his hood up and jumped out of the window, Jason having had to move to the edge of the building and jump off, his face towards the wall and hands catching the rim of the roof, so the young boy wouldn't spot him. He hung like that, his hands supporting his weight and waited for five minutes; sure that Robin had left before pulling up and placing his feet flat on the wall. He kicked off and used his arms to pull himself up and over so his legs flipped over him and landed on the roof. He walked back to the window and saw Talon move around the room and grab a few weapons. The heavily armoured being sat down and pulled off the boots. For a second Jason's heart stopped, thinking Talon had spotted the small tracking device on the bottom of the shoe. Instead, Talo reached out and grabbed another pair of shoes and slipped them on. Jason, from the angle he was looking from, saw that the grip on the new shoes was different from the old ones, the previous pair made more for snow. It seemed Talon hadn't changed since it had come from Ichabod either.

Once satisfied, Talon moved to the open glass. Jason ran to the left edge of the roof and threw himself off, falling parallel to the wall. He reached out and grabbed a ridge of the wall, catching himself. He placed a foot on the wall, the grip on his shoes allowing him to rest some of his weight on his foot. He tensed, ready to kick off the wall and fall down to the ground if Talon appeared above him. Talon didn't, moving to the right side of the building and jumped off. Jason waited another ten minutes until he was sure Talon wasn't going to double back and attack him. He scaled up the wall and went to the closed glass window in the roof. He opened it, bypassing the security and taking all cameras offline, making them play an image of what they had just recorded after the two had left, and dropped silently into the room. He snooped around the room, reading the papers. A few minutes later and he had the base of the Court of Owls. He also found the gender of Talon, a male, not that it really surprised Jason, he had the build and height of a male.

After gathering a bit more information, he exited the apartment and made his way back to his safe house. He had been up for thirty four hours and needed sleep. The dark haired male fought the urge to yawn and focused on finding his bike that he had left. He didn't really want to leave it out in case Batman or another member of the family found it. The male recovered it and used it to get back to his apartment. Jason trudged into his flat a few minutes later but didn't let his guard down until he had checked all the rooms and the security feed that reported no break-ins. Once he was sure he was alone, he sighed and took off his helmet and began to undress, pulling on pajama bottoms and got into bed. He closed his eyes and fell asleep quickly, using a technique Sandra had taught him that put him straight to sleep so he wouldn't have to waste an hour trying to fall asleep. 

* * *

"We have little on him. Nothing in the Justice League's database nor the Titans. Babs and Tim have searched for him, but he's basically a ghost," Dick spoke, pressing a button and three blurry pictures appeared. "Babs spent, at the very least, seven hours finding these two. The last one was found on the Batcave. All of them are blurry, taken by a phone and he's not even in the centre. They got him by accident." Dick paused and looked at Bruce. "He's good. More than just good."

"Estimated kills is at five hundred," Bruce read off the screen, eyes narrowed at the number.

"What do you think?"

"Probably closer to seven hundred plus. He's credited with over a hundred assassinations. He's only been known for three years but it would make sense that he's been around for much longer." The seated male clicked on the picture with the Red Hood in the air, in the middle of jumping onto another roof. He clicked on it several times to make the image crisper. "Some of those weapons look like they come from the League of Assassins."

"Do you think he's an assassin from the League?" Dick asked as he leant his hands onto the Batcomputer.

"Could be. It would make sense seeing as he does have their weaponry."

"He doesn't even have a name," Dick sighed.

"Not true. He has many names, he's known in many different countries. He has names in Chinese Mandarin, Han and Cantonese, Arabic, Hindi, French, Japanese, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish, Mongolian, Turkish and Punjabi to name a few. They range from Red Tooth and Bloodied Dagger to Swift Death and Scarlet Reaper. Anything along the lines of death or blood."

"He's a threat that's for sure," Dick scrutinised the photo in front of him. "We don't even have a good picture of his whole body."

"Not exactly. Using the latest technology, we can put in a few pictures and can construct a possible body." Bruce's finger typed quickly, starting the program and a body soon appeared.

"Six foot two, same size as Batman," Dick told him, turning his head to look at his adoptive father. "But taller than Bruce Wayne." Bruce scowled.

"We don't know that for sure," Bruce skulked. "But he does have a large build. Probably very strong. Stay away from him, Dick, he seems like trouble." Dick looked at Bruce, frowning at his father.

"What is it?" He asked. Bruce looked at him puzzled.

"What's what?"

"You have this face like something's happened and you don't want us to worry so you're not going to tell us," Dick explained. Bruce sighed and dragged a hand through his hair, wincing as he aggravated his fresh wounds.

"I didn't press the distress call," he admitted. Dick jerked.

"What? Of course you did, Bruce," Dick argued.

"I fell onto a pile of bones. I was too weak to press the button and they were about to kill me. They just... suddenly started vibrating and turned into goo. He was stood behind them. He was in a position to kill me but he didn't, he just crouched down and pressed the button for me."

"That's impossible. How did he even know where it was?"

"It is a bat symbol and I was reaching for it. Otherwise, he must have been studying us." Dick shuddered at that and cast his eyes around the Cave, looking for cameras. He didn't find any and returned to looking at the computer.

"He didn't kill you, so maybe he's good? Or an anti-hero?"

"He's killed three low Justice League members as well as two more we were thinking about asking to join us," Dick looked surprised but he continued. "They were all metas." Dick rubbed his forehead as he took in the information.

"There... is something else..." Dick started. Bruce turned to look at him, a gesture for him to carry on. " If we're confessing things then I should probably tell you this. Remember when I first met Damian? He was about to kill Ubu," Bruce nodded. "Well, whilst I was swinging to stop him, my line suddenly went slack. My momentum allowed me to stop Damian but I wasn't sure what happened. When I analysed the line, it had been cut. The computer said it was cut by a bullet but it didn't specify what type of bullet, or the gun it was fired from," Dick sighed.

"You think that that person and this one are somehow linked?"

"They could even be the same person. It also means that they're using weapons that we have no knowledge about."

"It is possible," Bruce thought, looking back at the computer.

"Bruce," Bruce turned to look at his son when he heard how serious Dick was. "I went back. It took me over an hour to find where the bullet got lodged in the wall of the building behind me and when I traced it back to where it would have been fired from, it was over 500 metres away on a hundred story building. That shot and the angle should have been impossible, especially with how thin my rope is. He got it dead on. Whoever he is, he's deadly," Dick surveyed the images on the screen and muttered. "And pretty anonymous."

Bruce typed into the computer and pulled up the video feed from the cameras in his cowl, showing Dick the footage of the assassin helping him. He paused it at the best frame. The fight prior had broken the left camera and the fall just before had made the cameras blurry. The man was hidden in shadows even when he was right in front of Batman. A picture of a looming man with a red helmet stayed on the screen. Footsteps behind them drew their heads back as Damian walked down the stairs, wanting to do some training. Bruce had grounded him and he wasn't allowed to patrol for at least a week after he had run off yesterday.

Damian looked up at the screen, frowning in confusion.

"Why do you have Red Hood on the screen?" He asked casually as he made his way to the mats.

"What!?" Both Dick and Bruce turned to him, looking at him with shock. Damian shuffled, a little self-conscious at their gazes.

"Damian, how do you know the name of this man?" Bruce asked.

"That is Red Hood, one of the greatest assassins to have ever graced the League of Assassins. My grandfather taught him a few things and remarked several times that he was one of best pupils he had ever taught. His hundred percent success rate isn't rivalled by anyone else in the entire League. He is a forced to be reckoned with and one of the League's prides," Damian smirked. "He also taught me several times. He even gave me a dagger." He couldn't keep the pride off his face or out of his voice.

"This man is a killer. He's murdered hundreds, possibly even a thousand, and you're proud to say he taught you something," Bruce got out of his chair and walked to Damian. He moved back a bit, intimidated by Bruce's scowl.

"You're just jealous that he could beat you!" Damian yelled at Bruce.

"He's a murderer. We need to take him down. He needs to pay for the crimes he's committed, the families he's torn apart."

"He was following orders!" Damian screamed, wanting to defend the Red Hood. The last few years he had lived with the League of Assassins, he had been told stories of the Red Hood and all his achievements. He had proclaimed to his mother that, one day, he too would be just as great as the Red Hood. One day he would beat him in a fight. Talia had laughed and ruffled his hair, saying that the Red Hood would let him beat him. Damian hadn't understood what she had meant but hadn't asked for clarification, thinking it was because he was an al Ghul so the Red Hood would let him win. Sometimes his friend Jayjay would tell him stories of the Red Hood as well, making him feel closer to the assassin as he spoke, almost as if he was a friend. He wasn't going to let his father talk down about a worthy assassin.

"He is a puppet for the League, a slave that does their dirty work," Bruce yelled back. "If he comes into Gotham then I will take him down." Damian's face distorted into an ugly glare.

"I HATE YOU!!" He yelled and stormed off. Bruce watched him go and sighed. Dick walked up to him.

"Are you going after him?" He asked.

"No, he needs time to cool down."

"He needs to know that you care. That you accept him as an assassin and will support him as he grows out of their teachings," Dick told him. Bruce didn't move and Dick sighed again. "There must be a reason why he defended the Red Hood so much."

"That man is a cold-blooded killer, plain and simple. And Damian looks up to him," Bruce ground out, turning to his eldest son.

"Bruce, his... upbringing... wasn't the best." Bruce sighed and walked to the Robin suit that was hung up as a memorial to his second son, a reminder that he had failed Jason and the boy had died because of it. He placed his hand on the glass as he stared into the case sorrowfully.

"Maybe he could have helped Damian." Jason hadn't had the best of childhoods either. Dick, seeing this, stayed back, not sure what to say without hurting Bruce.

"Are you going on patrol?" He asked. Bruce turned back to him and smiled at him.

"I've got a date."

"With Sam? You two are going good," Dick remarked. "Are you thinking of telling her about this." He spread his arms and gestured around the cave.

"I don't know. Maybe." Bruce walked out, intending to get ready for his dinner reservation. 

* * *

Jason woke up at twelve, getting nine hours of sleep, and felt refreshed and ready to go. He got out of bed and wandered around his house with a knife and gun, checking all the rooms for an intruder. When he didn't find any disturbances he walked into the shower, placing his gun and knife on top of the water temperature and pressure controls. He was in and out under a minute, knowing showering was when he was at one of his most vulnerable states.

Once showered and dried, he walked into his bedroom and grabbed a top and bottoms and pulled them on. Once clothed, Jason walked into his kitchen and prepared himself some food. As he ate, he read the latest news on his laptop, making sure to check if any prisoners had escaped from either Arkham or Blackgate. The assassin then uploaded the videos his helmet had recorded onto his laptop and watched Batman fight the three owls. Jason finished eating and got himself a second helping as the video moved onto Talon's apartment. He paused and scanned the documents he had browsed through, reading them properly and screenshotting the image so he could paste it onto a document that he could then print out. Most of the files were about targets but a few of them had some interesting bits of information.

Jason stood up and put the plate into the dishwasher and moved to his bedroom to change. He grabbed a pair of trousers specially designed for stealth, their dark colour and lightness helping him move without being spotted. He grabbed a black baseball cap and a zip-up jumper, things he could easily throw off if he was spotted and grabbed a black ski mask that would cover his whole face. The male also placed his wrist gauntlet on his left forearm and slid his hoodie arm over it to cover it. Lastly, he tugged on combat boots and armed himself with guns, knives, throwing daggers and stars and smoke bombs.

Jason exited his apartment and hopped onto one of his many motorbikes. He turned on the engine and headed to the base of the Court of Owls. It was in the older parts of Gotham. The archaic, gothic buildings loomed high above him on both sides but Jason didn't let it bother him, focusing on getting to the base. He found it and circled it twice, stopping at junctions and pretending he was lost. He even asked someone who told him to go away but with a different choice of words. He threw his arms up in his act, smiling as the man did exactly what Jason wanted him to do as it now let him survey the area without it seeming strange. The male turned around and used the action to survey the buildings, checking to see if there were any cameras. There were a few and Jason noted their locations, mind working to find the best way to enter. He got onto his bike and rode a little ways off then stashed it and went back on foot, pulling the ski mask on.

The Dark Angel jumped over the fence and made his way into the base, keeping to the shadows. Jason pressed his back against the wall and peered around the edge of it, spotting two cameras. He uncovered his electric wrist gauntlet and hacked the cameras so they moved away again and stayed like that for a second longer. It wasn't very long, but it was more than enough for Jason to sprint along the lawn. He stayed close to the wall until he found a way in. Luckily, he found a door and quickly picked the lock and slipped in. He skulked along until he found the door to the stairs. Jason made his way to the stairs, where less, if anybody, would be there. The male hadn't seen nor heard anyone and so he deemed it empty, for now. He shot a grappling onto the staircase above him and jumped off the stair rail, letting the line take him down. It kept going and after a while, Jason thought he wasn't going to have enough line. Fortunately, his feet hit the bottom before he had to swing onto the stairs, de-attach his hook, let it wind back up and shoot it again at the staircase above him.

Jason released the hook and let it wind slowly back up, checking around to see if anyone had spotted him. It was dark and he couldn't see the tell tale red flash of a camera but he didn't let his guard down. The male moved to the door and opened it a crack, peering through the gap into a big room. People, in white lab coats and white masks, were bustling around tanks. The tanks were filled with water and inside of them were naked people, floating in the greenish water. Jason's eyes narrowed as he watched them. When no one was looking, he opened the door wider and snuck through it. He kept to the shadows and moved to the nearest casket and crouched near to the controls. Jason pulled a wire out of the wrist gauntlet and attached it to the control panel, beginning to download all the files on it. When it was done, he withdrew back into the shadows, making his way up to the beams that supported the ceiling so he had a better vantage point. He stayed like that for several hours, watching them and placing a few cameras and audio recorders around the room as well as reading the notes he had downloaded onto his gauntlet, his green eyes reading the words on the hologram that was projected above his forearm. The two scientists directly below him began talking about the meeting that was about to take place, the Court of Owls giving a membership to another of Gotham's rich billionaire, peeking his interest.

He left them to speculate who it was as he made his way out. He ran up the stairs, jumping from one staircase railing to the next and made his way up. Once he was back on ground level, he snuck out of the stair door and stayed in the shadows, trying to find a suitable person. The first few who walked past him, without noticing he was even there, were either females, males who were too small for him or were in a group so he couldn't attack them. Eventually, a male around his height walked past him and Jason pounced, injecting him with a sedative in the neck. When he was out, he hauled him up and over his shoulders and walked into one of the bathrooms he had found. He dropped the man and took his clothes off, putting them on him. He crammed his feet into the shoes that were several sizes too small but the three-piece suit was pretty much his size. He rolled his shoulders, feeling the fabric pull tight along his shoulders and chest. It wasn't the best to fight in but he would manage. Lastly, he took the white mask off of the man. He looked at it; it was a plain white mask with holes for eyes and a 'v' carved into it where a nose would be, creating a beak. He put it on and walked out of the bathroom, turning and kneeling in front of the keyhole to lock it.

The tall male moved off, walking in the same direction as the others had. Jason caught up to some and joined the back of the line as they filed into as room. It was a coliseum type of room, a circle overlooking the middle. He moved to stand near to a column, leaning on it as they dragged a suited male into the middle. The bag was taken off his head and Bruce Wayne looked up at them. Jason raised an eyebrow but didn't do anything, watching as the Court Master spoke. The kneeling man told the Grandmaster he wanted time to think about it as he held the white mask. Only Jason saw him putting a tracker on the mask. He was knocked out again and dragged off.

The people began to stand and leave and Jason followed them. He walked back to the knocked out guy, lifting him over his shoulders and exited the building. He made his way to his motorbike and rifled through the man's pockets, finding a wallet with some identification and his home address. Jason put the drugged man on the motorbike in front of him, wrapping one arm around his waist so he wouldn't fall off, and sped to his house. Jason placed him on the bed and waited for him to wake up. When he did, he used a few tricks to hypnotise him and made believe he had gone to the meeting. Jason took off the suit he was wearing and hung it back on its hanger, making it look like it had been worn. He stripped the man of his own clothes and put them back on, making a face at it but doing so none the less. He had done worse things than wear clothes someone else had worn already. With that done, he slipped out of the house and back to where his motorbike was parked and headed back to his safehouse, planning to go through the few files he hadn't read that were on his gauntlet.

When he got home, before he could go through with his plan, he checked he was alone. When no one attacked him in any of the rooms, he moved back to his laptop and plugged his wrist gauntlet into a USB port and began uploading the data onto his laptop. Whilst it was doing so, he checked in on the Batcave. He couldn't find Damian and he sat up, going back in time to look through the video. He watched as Batman and Nightwing chatted about him, kicking himself for being in the background of a few pictures. Damian walked in and accidentally revealed his name. He seemed proud to know and be taught by Red Hood but Jason's smile fell when Batman yelled at him. They continued to argue and Damian stormed off. Jason clicked onto the cameras in his room and went through that video, seeing Damian consider the device Talon had given him the night before. Damian walked to his wardrobe and pulled out his Robin uniform, putting it on. He jumped out of his window and made his way out of the Manor, the security seemingly offline as he made his way easily out of the manor's land. Jason hacked into a few cameras and soon found a video showing Damian pressing the button, Talon meeting up with him a few minutes later and them leaving together. Jason groaned and rubbed his eyes.

"Why do you do this to me, Damian?" He asked. He called Sandra, desperately needing her advice.

"Hello, Jay," she greeted. Jason looked at the time and worked out it was probably seven where she was.

"What do you do when your ward goes darkside?" He asked. He could almost hear Sandra frowning.

"Aren't we already evil?" Jason sighed and explained.

"Damian's gone off with the person called Talon. I've found out a lot more about the Court of Owls. Though they're around three and a half hundred years old, younger than the League, they've only had fighters, called Talons, for about a hundred years. Damian's gone off with one of the Talons." He heard Sandra laugh at him.

"And here I thought I had it bad being Lady Talia's Dark Angel." She laughed. "Do what you're doing now. Continue to follow him and help in the shadows. He will probably see the errors of his ways soon and go back to Batman again."

"Thanks, Sandra."

"You're welcome, Jay." Jason sighed as he realised he had his work cut out for him

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Dark Angels and Demon Brats](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14594646) by [RandomReader13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomReader13/pseuds/RandomReader13)




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